Official: Efforts Underway to Free Innocent People Detained in Recent Protests in Iran

“A number of teams have been deployed and are filtering the detained people so that innocent people will be freed as soon as possible,” Mohebbi told FNA.

Asked about reports claiming that 200 people have been transferred to Evin prison in Northern Tehran, he said, “The number of inmates has not reached 200 all throughout the country in the past three or four days.”

Mohebbi said that the officials have no problem with accomodating the detainees as their numbers are not so high.

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced on Monday that it has identified and arrested some of the agents behind riots, which followed the recent protests against economic conditions in a number of Iranian cities in recent days.

In a statement, the ministry said Iranian security forces helped by people had managed to detain some of the elements who incited unrest in several cities across the country.

It added that efforts were ongoing to arrest other agents as soon as possible.

According to the ministry’s statement, some of the peaceful gatherings held in recent days in order to express public demands had turned violent “due to the presence of suspicious and aggressive elements” who damaged public property and caused casualties.

Since Thursday, groups of Iranian protesters have staged protests in a number of cities to protest at the rising prices and economic conditions. Sporadic violence has erupted during the protests.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday lashed out at certain countries, specially Saudi Arabia, for their attempts to foment unrests in Iran, and promised the nation to accelerate efforts to resolve the economic problems.

Addressing chairpersons of the Iranian parliament’s different commissions in Tehran, President Rouhani said that the enemies are angry with Iran’s different successes and achievements, including the 2015 nuclear deal, effective fight against terrorist groups and expansion of ties with different world states.

“These have angered our enemy. Our unity was a bullet (arrow) in their eyes and our progress and success in the world of politics and against the US and the Zionist regime was not bearable to them. Our success in the region was not bearable to them,” he said.

“They (the Saudis) have blatantly said that we will create problems in Tehran,” Rouhani said.

He also vowed that his government will double efforts to resolve the country’s economic problems, unemployment, air pollution and inflation.

His remarks alluded to Saudi Arabia’s then deputy crown prince who said in an interview last year that dialogue between his nation and Iran is impossible because of what he called as the latter’s “extremist ideology”.

Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown prince, who served as Riyadh’s defense minister and second in line to the throne at the time, claimed that his country is a primary target for Iran and charged that Iran sought to control of the Islamic world. “We won’t wait for the battle to be in Saudi Arabia,” Prince Mohammed said, “instead, we’ll work so that the battle is for them in Iran.”

The mainstream media in the West has given a wide coverage to the economic protests in a number of Iranian towns in the past few days that each comprised of a few hundred protesters, but none has covered the massive pro-government rallies held in more than 1,200 cities and towns on Saturday.