France accuses U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia of trying to spark war with Iran

French President Emmanuel Macron has accused the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia of instigating a war as their mutual foe, Iran, was rocked by a week of protests.

Macron on Wednesday joined several other world leaders to weigh in on protests that began as demonstrations against austerity measures under Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and later spilled into isolated, deadly clashes between civilians and security forces. The French leader called for dialogue with Tehran and criticized three of his international partners for pursuing what he considered bellicose policies toward a country the trio have increasingly sought to isolate and undermine in recent years.

“The official line pursued by the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, who are our allies in many ways, is almost one that would lead us to war,” Macron told reporters, according to Reuters.

It was “a deliberate strategy for some,” he added.

Filed under: Iran, Syria, France, US Foreign Policy, Wars for Israel, US Congress, USA, Trump, Macron |</s>Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it has forcefully ended anti-government protests that officials in the Islamic Republic blamed on “foreign instigators.”

“Iran’s revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain [of unrest] created … by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime [Israel], Saudi Arabia, the hypocrites [Mujahideen] and monarchists,” the IRGC said in a statement posted on Jan. 7 on its Sepah News website.

Contrary to the IRGC’s statement, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said it has received credible reports that protests continued in at least nine cities across Iran on Jan. 6, including Teheran, where social media footage showed gatherings despite a large police presence.

RFE/RL’s Radio Farda also reported it obtained credible reports on Jan. 6 from sources in Iran about overnight demonstrations against Iran’s clerical rulers in Takestan, Arak, Masjed Soleiman, Mashhad, Qazvin, Rasht, Lahijan, and Khomein, the birthplace of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The protests are the largest in Iran since 2009, when widespread unrest erupted over what analysts say was an obviously rigged election in favor of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The IRGC and its Basij militia suppressed the unrest in 2009. Dozens of pro-reform Iranians were killed.

State media has stopped reporting on anti-government protests, but broadcast live footage of a fifth day of pro-government rallies organized by authorities.

While the Iranian government continues to insist the protests have been instigated by foreigners, a group of 16 prominent reformist figures living in Iran issued a statement rejecting that argument.

In the Jan. 6 statement, the signatories said, “Despite the fact the enemies of the country always try to take advantage of such events, we should know that any kind of foreign interference would not be possible without the existence of internal conditions.”

They added that, in addition to the government claim of foreign involvement being “an insult” to Iranians, it leads to “negligence toward the real causes of the protests.”

Meanwhile, access to the social media app Telegram remained blocked on Jan. 7, despite claims from Iran’s FARS news agency that the restrictions on Telegram had been “fully lifted.”

“The parliament is not in favor of keeping Telegram filtering in place, but it must pledge that it will not be used as a tool by the enemies of the Iranian people,” Behrouz Nemati, spokesman for the parliament’s presiding board, said.

Almost a third of Iran’s 80 million people use the Telegram app as their main source of news and as a way of bypassing highly restrictive state media.

Unlike the 2009 Green Movement, anti-government protesters over the last two weeks have garnered support from the United States. President Donald Trump has tweeted his support on several occasions.

The 2009 rebellion’s failure “was assured” by President Barack Obama, Jed Babbin, a deputy undersecretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush administration, noted in a Jan. 7 analysis for The Washington Times.

“Instead of helping the protesters, Obama criticized them, saying that they didn’t represent ‘fundamental change,’ ” Babbin wrote. “He spoke meekly, saying that, ‘The world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was.’ ”

Babbin continued: “As these protests and the Green Movement of 2009 proved, the ayatollahs’ regime is vulnerable. Regardless of what happens to the Iranian protesters in the next weeks, Trump needs to act decisively.

“What Obama forbade in 2009 Trump should authorize in 2018. The CIA will have plans to fund and help the opposition organize fomenting revolution in Iran to oust the ayatollahs and return Iran to a semblance of freedom. That covert action can be authorized by a secret ‘presidential determination,’ which Trump should sign as soon as possible.”

Later this month, Trump will again have to decide on certifying Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal.

“Last October he refused to do that. Now he can do more,” Babbin wrote.

Login To Your FaceBook to Make Comments</s>Iranians hold an Iranian flag during a protest after performing the Friday prayers at Imam Khomeini Mosque following a US statement backing the anti-government protests in Tehran, Iran, on Friday (Anadolu Agency photo)

DUBAI — Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the country's people and security forces had put an end to unrest fomented by foreign enemies, as parliament and security officials met to discuss the boldest challenge to the clerical establishment since 2009.

There has been more than a week of unrest in Iran in which 22 people have died and more than 1,000 arrested, according to Iranian officials. The protests spread to more than 80 cities and rural towns as thousands of young and working-class Iranians expressed their anger at graft, unemployment and a deepening gap between rich and poor.

Residents contacted by Reuters in various cities have said the protests had subsided after the government intensified a crackdown by dispatching Revolutionary Guards forces to several provinces.

"Iran's revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the intelligence ministry have broken down the chain [of unrest]," the guards said in a statement on their Sepahnews website.

The guards said the unrest had been “created... by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime [Israel], Saudi Arabia, and monarchists”.

Parliament met on Sunday to discuss the week of unrest with the ministers of interior and intelligence, Iran’s police chief and the deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, state television said.

Late on Saturday, videos on social media showed a heavy police presence in cities, including Khorramabad in southwestern Iran where on Wednesday evening social media posts showed protesters throwing stones at riot police.

As protests have ebbed, the government has lifted restrictions it imposed on Instagram, one of the social media tools used to mobilise protesters. But access to a more widely used messaging app, Telegram, was still blocked, suggesting authorities remained uneasy about the possibility of further protests.

Parliament spokesman Behrouz Nemati said MPs and security officials had decided that Telegram restrictions should be lifted only after the app committed to ban “hostile, anti-Iranian channels that promote unrest”, state television reported.

Telegram, with 40 million users in Iran, in late December shut down a channel that Iran had accused of encouraging violence, but declined to block other channels and this prompted Tehran to block access to the app.

Many Iranians access Telegram by using virtual private networks (VPNs) and other tools to bypass government filtering of the Internet, residents say.

Thousands of government supporters have staged rallies in a backlash against the anti-government protests which are the biggest since widespread unrest in 2009 over alleged election fraud.

State television showed live pictures of rallies in several cities, including central Shahr-e Kord where hundreds, many clutching umbrellas, had gathered despite heavy snowfall.

“Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, “Death to Britain” “Death to seditionists”, the demonstrators chanted.

The anti-government protests have attracted largely young people and workers as well as members of the educated middle-class that formed the backbone of a pro-reform revolt almost a decade ago.

A police spokesman said most of those arrested were “duped” into joining the unrest and had been freed on bail, the state news agency IRNA reported. “But, the leaders of the unrest are held by the judiciary in prison.”

Several parliament members and university officials have expressed concern over the fate of students arrested during the protests. Tehran University Vice President Majid Sarsangi has said the university had set up a committee to track them.

Parliament spokesman Nemati said MPs had asked security officials for a report about the detained students during Sunday’s closed session.

“One of the issues addressed by deputies and the parliament speaker was that of detained students, and it was decided that the Intelligence Ministry would vigorously pursue this and submit a report by next week,” said Nemati, quoted by IRNA.

A member of parliament said earlier about 90 students were detained, 10 of whom were still not accounted for.

Iran has several parallel security bodies and residents say arrests are often not immediately announced.

Videos on social media in the past few days showed relatives of detainees gathering outside prisons seeking information about the fate of their loved ones.

The Revolutionary Guards and their affiliated Basij militia suppressed unrest in 2009, in which dozens of pro-reform Iranians were killed.</s>DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the country’s people and security forces had put an end to unrest fomented by foreign enemies, as parliament and security officials met to discuss the boldest challenge to the clerical establishment since 2009.

There has been more than a week of unrest in Iran in which 22 people have died and more than 1,000 arrested, according to Iranian officials. The protests spread to more than 80 cities and rural towns as thousands of young and working-class Iranians expressed their anger at graft, unemployment and a deepening gap between rich and poor.

Residents contacted by Reuters in various cities have said the protests had subsided after the government intensified a crackdown by dispatching Revolutionary Guards forces to several provinces.

“Iran’s revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain (of unrest),” the Guards said in a statement on their Sepahnews website. The Guards said the unrest had been “created ... by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime (Israel), Saudi Arabia, the hypocrites (Mujahideen) and monarchists.”

Parliament met on Sunday to discuss the week of unrest with the ministers of interior and intelligence, Iran’s police chief and the deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, state television said.

Late on Saturday, videos on social media showed a heavy police presence in cities, including Khorramabad in southwestern Iran where on Wednesday evening social media posts showed protesters throwing stones at riot police.

As protests have ebbed, the government has lifted restrictions it imposed on Instagram, one of the social media tools used to mobilise protesters. But access to a more widely used messaging app, Telegram, was still blocked, suggesting authorities remained uneasy about the possibility of further protests.

Parliament spokesman Behrouz Nemati said MPs and security officials had decided that Telegram restrictions should be lifted only after the app committed to ban “hostile, anti-Iranian channels that promote unrest”, state television reported.

Telegram, with 40 million users in Iran, in late December shut down a channel that Iran had accused of encouraging violence, but declined to block other channels and this prompted Tehran to block access to the app.

Many Iranians access Telegram by using virtual private networks (VPNs) and other tools to bypass government filtering of the Internet, residents say.

Thousands of government supporters have staged rallies in a backlash against the anti-government protests which are the biggest since widespread unrest in 2009 over alleged election fraud.

State television showed live pictures of rallies in several cities, including central Shahr-e Kord where hundreds, many clutching umbrellas, had gathered despite heavy snowfall.

“Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, “Death to Britain” “Death to seditionists”, the demonstrators chanted.

The anti-government protests have attracted largely young people and workers as well as members of the educated middle-class that formed the backbone of a pro-reform revolt almost a decade ago.

A police spokesman said most of those arrested were “duped” into joining the unrest and had been freed on bail, the state news agency IRNA reported. “But, the leaders of the unrest are held by the judiciary in prison.”

Several parliament members and university officials have expressed concern over the fate of students arrested during the protests. Tehran University Vice-President Majid Sarsangi has said the university had set up a committee to track them.

Parliament spokesman Nemati said MPs had asked security officials for a report about the detained students during Sunday’s closed session.

“One of the issues addressed by deputies and the parliament speaker was that of detained students, and it was decided that the Intelligence Ministry would vigorously pursue this and submit a report by next week,” said Nemati, quoted by IRNA.

A member of parliament said earlier about 90 students were detained, 10 of whom were still not accounted for.

Iran has several parallel security bodies and residents say arrests are often not immediately announced.

Videos on social media in the past few days showed relatives of detainees gathering outside prisons seeking information about the fate of their loved ones.

The Revolutionary Guards and their affiliated Basij militia suppressed unrest in 2009, in which dozens of pro-reform Iranians were killed.</s>Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) said in a statement Sunday that the Iranian people and the country's security forces played a role in ending the recent wave of unrest that the IRGC says was fomented by foreign enemies.

 

 The group said in a statement, "The new epic of the proud, conscious, pious, and revolutionary Iranian people, along with the distinguished presence of tens of thousands of loyal Basij volunteer forces in calming the riots and the sincere endeavors of the brethren of the Law Enforcement Force and the Intelligence Ministry have broken the chain woven by America, Britain, the Zionist regime [Israel], the Saudi royal family, the Hypocrites [the banned Mojahedin-e-Karl Organization] and monarchists and eliminated the witchery of a new sedition."

 

 Iran's parliament holds a special session Sunday to discuss the anti-government protests that began December 28 and continued into the following week.

Iran's ISNA news agency reported that Iran's interior minister, head of intelligence and security council chief are all expected to attend. On the agenda are discussions of the root cause of the protests, as well as legal help for protesters jailed during the demonstrations.

 

 The session was called by a group of reformist lawmakers, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In a letter, those lawmakers called for legal assistance for the detained and condemned any outside "interference" in the protests, calling out the United States in particular.

 

 U.S. President Donald Trump is set to soon decide whether to continue waiving sanctions on Iran that were suspended under the 2015 international deal on Iran's nuclear program. The waiver must be renewed every 120 days, according to U.S. law. Trump could decide not to renew, putting U.S. trade sanctions back into effect.

 

 In Europe, supporters of the anti-government protesters in Iran have been gathering to show their support in The Hague, Berlin, Hamburg, Stockholm, London and Paris.

At least 22 people have died in the protests and more than 1,000 have been arrested. Hard-line cleric Ahmad Khatami told worshipers in a sermon Friday that those arrested should be treated as enemies of Islam, particularly those who have burned the flag. "There should be no mercy for them," he said.

 

 Government official Mansour Gholami has told reporters that about a quarter of those arrested have been released, but he did not provide exact numbers.



 The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Friday at the urging of the United States.

 

 U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley called the protests "a powerful exhibition of brave people who have become so fed up with their oppressive government that they are willing to risk their lives in protests." She also addressed the Iranian government, saying, "the U.S. is watching what you do."

 

 In response, the Iranian ambassador, Gholamali Khoshroo, said it is a "discredit" to the Security Council to hold such a meeting on Iran in the face of the conflicts taking place in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East. He, along with a number of Security Council members, said the United States is meddling in Iran's domestic affairs.

After the meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted, "The UNSC rebuffed the U.S.'snaked attempt to hijack its mandate ... Another FP [foreign policy] blunder for the Trump administration."

 

 Still, U.S. intelligence officials warn Tehran is at a crossroads, noting the protests are the biggest outpouring of public discontent since Iranians took to the streets in 2009 following a disputed presidential election.

 

 "The protests are symptomatic of long-standing grievances that have been left to fester," an intelligence official told VOA on condition of anonymity. "Will it address the legitimate concerns of its people or suppress the voices of its own populace?"

 

 "What is clear is that these concerns are not going away," the official said.

 

 Critics of Iranian President Nassan Rouhani say he has abandoned the poor, pointing to rising prices for key commodities like fuel, bread and eggs.</s>Iran's foreign minister says recent unrest in Iran was caused by U.S. "interventionist" strategies and called them some of the nation's most serious security challenges. Mohammad Javad Zarif also alleges that foreign powers — including regional rival Saudi Arabia — stirred up unrest.

Zarif spoke Monday at an international conference on Middle East security in Tehran with more than 200 Iranian and international officials and experts, according to Iranian media reports.

Conference director Jalal Dehghani Firouzabadi says the defeat of the Islamic State has changed the security situation in the region, and Iran and other nations and groups must now chart a new course.

The conference started two days after a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting on the protests roiling Iran.

The talks follow a week of protests in Iran, which was the biggest public display of discontent since the 1979 revolution. At least 22 people were killed during the demonstrations, and more than 500 arrests have been made across the country.

The anti-government protests followed food price hikes and started Dec. 28 in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city. The disturbances later spread to other cities.

"Some countries tried to misuse the recent incidents," foreign minister Zarif said without mentioning Saudi Arabia. "No country can create a secure environment for itself at the expense of creating insecurity among its neighbors."

Zarif says the impression that Islamic State is finished is "false," and U.S. policies are a source of instability in the region.

"The U.S. is still ignorant of objective facts across the region and insists on pursuing its destructive and tension-creating policies through its illegitimate military presence on Syrian soil," he said.

Zarif also said that the continued occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel is the most critical issue facing the region.

At the conclusion of his speech, the Iranian foreign minister warned against the destabilizing impact of the arms race in the region, saying that Saudi Arabia, the United States and Israel are fanning the flames of regional crises through their interventionist policies.</s>Iran, where fresh pro-regime demonstrations took place Friday, has been rocked by days of opposition protests over the economy and the Islamic regime as a whole.

The unrest has left 21 dead, mostly demonstrators, and prompted hundreds of arrests. It is the biggest such movement in the tightly controlled country since a protest movement over a disputed election in 2009.

A few hundred demonstrators gather in the northeastern city of Mashhad and several other towns on December 28 to protest high living costs.

Videos on reformist media show protesters focusing their ire on President Hassan Rouhani but there are also slogans lambasting the entire regime and Iran's involvement in conflicts across the Middle East.

The next day larger-scale protests flare up in more cities including religious centre Qom, where footage shows hundreds of demonstrators chanting "Death to the dictator" and "Free political prisoners".

On December 30, regime supporters rally around the country for officially sanctioned demonstrations to commemorate the defeat of the 2009 protest movement.

Despite government warnings, anti-government protests grow. Tear gas fills the streets of downtown Tehran as hundreds of people scuffle with police.

The unrest claims its first victims when two people are killed in the western town of Dorud.

On December 31, the authorities issue more warnings and block access to online messaging services that were instrumental in organising protests.

Rouhani insists people are "absolutely free" to express their anger but "criticism is different to violence and destroying public property".

Nevertheless the unrest continues as videos on social media show demonstrations across the country for a fourth night.

Iranian media and officials report 10 deaths in protests overnight Sunday to Monday in the west of the country.

US President Donald Trump says it is "time for change" in Iran.

State television says nine people, including a policeman and Revolutionary Guards member, are killed in unrest on January 1.

Six die in the town of Qahderijan, in the central province of Isfahan, where protesters try to storm a police station, the state broadcaster reports. The number of arrests rises to 450.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei breaks his silence on January 2, saying Iran's "enemies have united and are using all their means" against the regime.

Rouhani phones French leader Emmanuel Macron to demand action against a "terrorist" Iranian opposition group he accuses of fomenting the protests, likely referring to the Paris-based Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

On January 3 the commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, announces "the end of the sedition".

At the United Nations, Iran accuses Washington of "grotesque" meddling.

On January 4, the United States imposes sanctions on five Iranian companies it alleges are working on Iran's illegal ballistic missile program.

On January 5 pro-regime rallies are held around Tehran for the third day running.

Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri accuses the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia of being behind the violence. His deputy criticises the government for not having blocked the internet.

Iranian officials say they have arrested four members of a "terrorist cell" linked to the Mujahedeen.

The UN Security Council prepares to meet to discuss the Iran protests, prompting Russia to accuse the US of "interfering".</s>DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the country’s people and security forces had put an end to unrest fomented by foreign enemies, as parliament and security officials met to discuss the boldest challenge to the clerical establishment since 2009.

There has been more than a week of unrest in Iran in which 22 people have died and more than 1,000 arrested, according to Iranian officials. The protests spread to more than 80 cities and rural towns as thousands of young and working-class Iranians expressed their anger at graft, unemployment and a deepening gap between rich and poor.

Residents contacted by Reuters in various cities have said the protests had subsided after the government intensified a crackdown by dispatching Revolutionary Guards forces to several provinces.

“Iran’s revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain (of unrest),” the Guards said in a statement on their Sepahnews website. The Guards said the unrest had been “created ... by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime (Israel), Saudi Arabia, the hypocrites (Mujahideen) and monarchists.”

Parliament met on Sunday to discuss the week of unrest with the ministers of interior and intelligence, Iran’s police chief and the deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, state television said.

Late on Saturday, videos on social media showed a heavy police presence in cities, including Khorramabad in southwestern Iran where on Wednesday evening social media posts showed protesters throwing stones at riot police.

As protests have ebbed, the government has lifted restrictions it imposed on Instagram, one of the social media tools used to mobilise protesters. But access to a more widely used messaging app, Telegram, was still blocked, suggesting authorities remained uneasy about the possibility of further protests.

Parliament spokesman Behrouz Nemati said MPs and security officials had decided that Telegram restrictions should be lifted only after the app committed to ban “hostile, anti-Iranian channels that promote unrest”, state television reported.

Telegram, with 40 million users in Iran, in late December shut down a channel that Iran had accused of encouraging violence, but declined to block other channels and this prompted Tehran to block access to the app.

Many Iranians access Telegram by using virtual private networks (VPNs) and other tools to bypass government filtering of the Internet, residents say.

Thousands of government supporters have staged rallies in a backlash against the anti-government protests which are the biggest since widespread unrest in 2009 over alleged election fraud.

State television showed live pictures of rallies in several cities, including central Shahr-e Kord where hundreds, many clutching umbrellas, had gathered despite heavy snowfall.

“Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, “Death to Britain” “Death to seditionists”, the demonstrators chanted.

The anti-government protests have attracted largely young people and workers as well as members of the educated middle-class that formed the backbone of a pro-reform revolt almost a decade ago.

A police spokesman said most of those arrested were “duped” into joining the unrest and had been freed on bail, the state news agency IRNA reported. “But, the leaders of the unrest are held by the judiciary in prison.”

Several parliament members and university officials have expressed concern over the fate of students arrested during the protests. Tehran University Vice-President Majid Sarsangi has said the university had set up a committee to track them.

Parliament spokesman Nemati said MPs had asked security officials for a report about the detained students during Sunday’s closed session.

“One of the issues addressed by deputies and the parliament speaker was that of detained students, and it was decided that the Intelligence Ministry would vigorously pursue this and submit a report by next week,” said Nemati, quoted by IRNA.

A member of parliament said earlier about 90 students were detained, 10 of whom were still not accounted for.

Iran has several parallel security bodies and residents say arrests are often not immediately announced.

Videos on social media in the past few days showed relatives of detainees gathering outside prisons seeking information about the fate of their loved ones.

The Revolutionary Guards and their affiliated Basij militia suppressed unrest in 2009, in which dozens of pro-reform Iranians were killed.</s>Iran, where fresh pro-regime demonstrations took place Friday, has been rocked by days of opposition protests over the economy and the Islamic regime as a whole.

The unrest has left 21 dead, mostly demonstrators, and prompted hundreds of arrests. It is the biggest such movement in the tightly controlled country since a protest movement over a disputed election in 2009.

A few hundred demonstrators gather in the northeastern city of Mashhad and several other towns on December 28 to protest high living costs.

Videos on reformist media show protesters focusing their ire on President Hassan Rouhani but there are also slogans lambasting the entire regime and Iran's involvement in conflicts across the Middle East.

The next day larger-scale protests flare up in more cities including religious centre Qom, where footage shows hundreds of demonstrators chanting "Death to the dictator" and "Free political prisoners".

On December 30, regime supporters rally around the country for officially sanctioned demonstrations to commemorate the defeat of the 2009 protest movement.

Despite government warnings, anti-government protests grow. Tear gas fills the streets of downtown Tehran as hundreds of people scuffle with police.

The unrest claims its first victims when two people are killed in the western town of Dorud.

On December 31, the authorities issue more warnings and block access to online messaging services that were instrumental in organising protests.

Rouhani insists people are "absolutely free" to express their anger but "criticism is different to violence and destroying public property".

Nevertheless the unrest continues as videos on social media show demonstrations across the country for a fourth night.

Iranian media and officials report 10 deaths in protests overnight Sunday to Monday in the west of the country.

US President Donald Trump says it is "time for change" in Iran.

State television says nine people, including a policeman and Revolutionary Guards member, are killed in unrest on January 1.

Six die in the town of Qahderijan, in the central province of Isfahan, where protesters try to storm a police station, the state broadcaster reports. The number of arrests rises to 450.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei breaks his silence on January 2, saying Iran's "enemies have united and are using all their means" against the regime.

Rouhani phones French leader Emmanuel Macron to demand action against a "terrorist" Iranian opposition group he accuses of fomenting the protests, likely referring to the Paris-based Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

On January 3 the commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, announces "the end of the sedition".

At the United Nations, Iran accuses Washington of "grotesque" meddling.

On January 4, the United States imposes sanctions on five Iranian companies it alleges are working on Iran's illegal ballistic missile program.

On January 5 pro-regime rallies are held around Tehran for the third day running.

Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri accuses the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia of being behind the violence. His deputy criticises the government for not having blocked the internet.

Iranian officials say they have arrested four members of a "terrorist cell" linked to the Mujahedeen.

The UN Security Council prepares to meet to discuss the Iran protests, prompting Russia to accuse the US of "interfering".</s>DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the country’s people and security forces had put an end to unrest fomented by foreign enemies, as parliament and security officials met to discuss the boldest challenge to the clerical establishment since 2009.

There has been more than a week of unrest in Iran in which 22 people have died and more than 1,000 arrested, according to Iranian officials. The protests spread to more than 80 cities and rural towns as thousands of young and working-class Iranians expressed their anger at graft, unemployment and a deepening gap between rich and poor.

Residents contacted by Reuters in various cities have said the protests had subsided after the government intensified a crackdown by dispatching Revolutionary Guards forces to several provinces.

“Iran’s revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain (of unrest),” the Guards said in a statement on their Sepahnews website. The Guards said the unrest had been “created ... by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime (Israel), Saudi Arabia, the hypocrites (Mujahideen) and monarchists.”

Parliament met on Sunday to discuss the week of unrest with the ministers of interior and intelligence, Iran’s police chief and the deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, state television said.

Late on Saturday, videos on social media showed a heavy police presence in cities, including Khorramabad in southwestern Iran where on Wednesday evening social media posts showed protesters throwing stones at riot police.

As protests have ebbed, the government has lifted restrictions it imposed on Instagram, one of the social media tools used to mobilize protesters. But access to a more widely used messaging app, Telegram, was still blocked, suggesting authorities remained uneasy about the possibility of further protests.

Parliament spokesman Behrouz Nemati said MPs and security officials had decided that Telegram restrictions should be lifted only after the app committed to ban “hostile, anti-Iranian channels that promote unrest”, state television reported.

Telegram, with 40 million users in Iran, in late December shut down a channel that Iran had accused of encouraging violence, but declined to block other channels and this prompted Tehran to block access to the app.

Many Iranians access Telegram by using virtual private networks (VPNs) and other tools to bypass government filtering of the Internet, residents say.

Related Coverage Iran bans English in primary schools after leader's warning

Thousands of government supporters have staged rallies in a backlash against the anti-government protests which are the biggest since widespread unrest in 2009 over alleged election fraud.

State television showed live pictures of rallies in several cities, including central Shahr-e Kord where hundreds, many clutching umbrellas, had gathered despite heavy snowfall.

“Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, “Death to Britain” “Death to seditionists”, the demonstrators chanted.

The anti-government protests have attracted largely young people and workers as well as members of the educated middle-class that formed the backbone of a pro-reform revolt almost a decade ago.

A police spokesman said most of those arrested were “duped” into joining the unrest and had been freed on bail, the state news agency IRNA reported. “But, the leaders of the unrest are held by the judiciary in prison.”

CONCERNS ABOUT STUDENT ARRESTS

Several parliament members and university officials have expressed concern over the fate of students arrested during the protests. Tehran University Vice-President Majid Sarsangi has said the university had set up a committee to track them.

Parliament spokesman Nemati said MPs had asked security officials for a report about the detained students during Sunday’s closed session.

“One of the issues addressed by deputies and the parliament speaker was that of detained students, and it was decided that the Intelligence Ministry would vigorously pursue this and submit a report by next week,” said Nemati, quoted by IRNA.

A member of parliament said earlier about 90 students were detained, 10 of whom were still not accounted for.

People take part in pro-government rallies, Iran, January 3, 2018. Tasnim News Agency/Handout via REUTERS

Iran has several parallel security bodies and residents say arrests are often not immediately announced.

Videos on social media in the past few days showed relatives of detainees gathering outside prisons seeking information about the fate of their loved ones.

The Revolutionary Guards and their affiliated Basij militia suppressed unrest in 2009, in which dozens of pro-reform Iranians were killed.
The Revolutionary Guards announce that Iran broke down the chain of last week's unrest. According to them, the unrest was created "by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime (Israel), Saudi Arabia, the hypocrites (Mujahideen) and monarchists."