Iran’s leadership played down the nationwide mass demonstrations in an interview with a government spokesman on Saturday after major protests erupted again in the main cities of Tehran and Mashhad on Friday.
There have been reports of dozens of deaths during nearly two weeks of demonstrations against the country’s leadership and its handling of the economic crisis.
But the spokesman, speaking on state television, said calm had prevailed in most cities, according to a translation of a video by Iribnews, the state broadcasting network’s news agency.
He also said that the populace supported the government troops in at least one city.
“Armed terrorists” had again tried to disrupt public security in various cities, the spokesman said, citing reports from the field.
However, thanks to the arrival of the security forces and the strong presence of the population, there had been no armed attacks, he added.
In the northern city of Qazvin, people had sharply condemned the actions of “armed terrorists,” according to the spokesman.
Demonstrations in Tehran and Mashhad
For the second evening in a row, however, large numbers of people took to the streets various major cities. Protests took place in Tehran and Mashhad and other locations on Friday.
Widely shared videos on social media showed crowds in central squares.The footage could not initially be independently verified.
Few images are getting out of Iran since the government shut down the internet on Thursday. The exact scope of the demonstrations remains unclear.
Pro-government media such as state broadcasting are not affected by the internet ban and continue to disseminate their reports, for example via the Telegram messaging service.