(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Teargas filled the streets of downtown Tehran yesterday as protests spilled into a third day, with the government warning against further 'illegal gatherings.
There was chaos around the University of Tehran as several hundred people scuffled with police and shouted slogans against the regime for several hours, bringing traffic to a standstill.
But the regime also put on a show of strength, with hundreds of counter-demonstrators seizing control of the university entrance in Tehran, chanting 'Death to the seditionists.
Videos shared by social media users outside Iran claimed to show thousands marching peacefully in several cities including Khorramabad, Zanjan and Ahvaz. But a swirl of wild rumours online, combined with travel restrictions and a near-total media blackout from official agencies, made it difficult to verify footage.Telecoms minister Mohamed-Javad Azari Jahromi accused one popular Telegram channel of encouraging the 'use of Molotov cocktails, armed uprising, and social unrest.
The authorities were fortunate that annual rallies marking the defeat of the last major protest movement in 2009 were already scheduled for yesterday morning and brought thousands of regime enthusiasts to the streets across the country.
'We urge all those who receive these calls to protest not to participate in these illegal gatherings as they will create problems for themselves and other citizens, warned Interior Minister Abdolrahman Rahmani Fazli.
The protests began in the second city of Mashhad on Thursday as an attack on high living costs but quickly turned against the regime as a whole.
State news channel IRINN said it had been banned from covering the protests that spread to towns and cities including Qom and Kermanshah.
'The enemy wants once again to create a new plot and use social media and economic issues to foment a new sedition, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, a prominent cleric, told a crowd in Tehran, according to the conservative Fars news agency. Other officials also pointed the blame outside Iran.
'Although people have a right to protest, protesters must know how they are being directed, Massoumeh Ebtekar, vice president in charge of women's affairs, wrote on Twitter.
She posted images from Twitter accounts based in the United States and Saudi Arabia, voicing support for the Mashhad protests.
Nonetheless, officials warned against dismissing the public anger seen in recent days.
'The country is facing serious challenges with unemployment, high prices, corruption, lack of water, social gap, unbalanced distribution of budget, wrote Hesamoddin Ashena, cultural adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, on Twitter.
'People have the right for their voice to be heard.
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