Protesters in Iran overturn vehicles and spread fires in anti-government action
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Iran's Supreme Leader has blamed country-wide protests on "enemies of Iran" as the death toll from anti-government demonstrations rose to 22.
The demonstrations, the largest to strike Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election, have brought six days of unrest across the country.
Around 450 protesters have been arrested in the capital Tehran over the last three days, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported.
The agency quoted Ali Asghar Nasserbakht, a security deputy governor of Tehran, who said 200 protesters were arrested on Saturday, 150 on Sunday and 100 were arrested Monday.
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Offering his first comments since the protests began, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the "enemies of Iran" of meddling in the country's affairs.
"In the recent days' incidents, enemies of Iran utilized various means — including money, weapons, politics and intelligence apparatuses — to create problems for the Islamic system," he said.
The protests began on Thursday in Mashhad over Iran's weak economy and a jump in food prices and have expanded to several cities, with some protesters chanting against the government and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The protests have put pressure on the clerical leaders in power since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
President Hassan Rouhani has acknowledged the public's anger over the Islamic Republic's flagging economy, though he and others warned that the government wouldn't hesitate to crack down on those it considers lawbreakers.
All the protest rallies so far haven't received prior permission from the Interior Ministry, making them illegal under Iranian law.
In comments posted to his official website, Mr Khamenei appeared to blame foreign nations for at least exacerbating the unrest gripping Iran.
"In the recent days' incidents, enemies of Iran utilised various means — including money, weapon, politics and intelligence apparatuses — to create problems for the Islamic system," he said.
The head of Tehran's Revolutionary Court also reportedly warned that arrested protesters could potentially face death penalty cases when they come to trial.
Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Mousa Ghazanfarabadi as saying: "Obviously one of their charges can be Moharebeh," or waging war against God, a death penalty offence in Iran.
Donald Trump supported the protesters in a tweet: "The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!"
Later in the day, he tweeted to say "the people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime".
"All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their 'pockets,"' Mr Trump wrote, apparently referring to the nuclear deal reached under his predecessor. "The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The US is watching!"
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi, urged the US President to stop tweeting and focus on his own country's problems.
"It is better for him to try to address the US' internal issues like the murder of scores killed on a daily basis in the United States during armed clashes and shootings, as well as millions of the homeless and hungry people in the country," Mr Ghasemi said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
The protests began over Iran's economy, which has improved since the nuclear deal that saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the end of some international sanctions. Tehran now sells its oil on the global market and has signed deals to purchase tens of billions of dollars' worth of Western aircraft.
However, the improvement has not reached the average Iranian.
Unemployment remains high, and official inflation has crept up to 10 per cent again. A recent increase in egg and poultry prices by as much as 40 per cent, which the government has blamed on a cull over avian flu fears, appears to have been the spark for the economic protests.
Boris Johnson has called for Iran to engage in "meaningful debate" about the "legitimate and important" issues raised by protesters.
The Foreign Secretary, who visited Tehran last month, had earlier said he was "watching events with concern".
In a Facebook post, Mr Johnson said the UK was "watching events in Iran closely".
He said: "We believe that there should be meaningful debate about the legitimate and important issues the protesters are raising and we look to the Iranian authorities to permit this.
"We also believe that, particularly as we enter the 70th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, people should be able to have freedom of expression and to demonstrate peacefully within the law.
"We regret the loss of life that has occurred in the protests in Iran, and call on all concerned to refrain from violence and for international obligations on human rights to be observed."
The Trump administration is calling on Iran's government to stop blocking Instagram and other popular social media sites as Iranians are demonstrating in the streets.
US Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein says the United States wants Iran to "open these sites." He says Instagram, Telegram and other platforms are "legitimate avenues for communication."
The United States is encouraging Iranians to use virtual private networks, known as VPNs. Those services create encrypted links between computers and can be used to access blocked websites.
Goldstein says the US is still communicating with Iranians in Farsi through State Department accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. He says the US wants to "encourage the protesters to continue to fight for what's right."
Goldstein says the US has an "obligation not to stand by."
US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has hailed the “brave people of Iran”, and re-iterated America’s call on Iran to unblock social media services.
In a live UN address Ms Haley said: “It takes great bravery for the Iranian people to use the power of their voices”, she said. “We want to help amplify the voices of the Iranian people.”
“The people of Iran are crying out for freedom”, she added.
The White House has called for Iran's leadership to respect its citizens' right to demonstrate after a sixth day of protests that brought riot police out in force in several cities.
"The United States supports the Iranian people and calls on the regime to respect its citizens' basic rights to peacefully express their desire for change," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.
The Trump administration has also raised the possibility of imposing more sanctions on Iran to punish it for cracking down on protesters.
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said sanctions are one tool the US has to respond to Iran's behavior. She said the US is "watching reports very closely of any potential human rights abuses." She's alluding to existing sanctions authorities that allow the US to target Iran for human rights violations.
Ms Nauert called the protesters in Iran "brave" and "courageous."
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