Most Unrest Detainees Freed on Bail

The majority of those arrested during the recent anti-government demonstrations have been released on bail, a police spokesperson said.

"Most of the detainees in the recent unrest have been freed on bail, but the main elements and riot leaders remain in judiciary's detention," Saeed Montazerolmahdi was quoted by IRNA as saying on Saturday.

"The police managed to identify and arrest those who plotted and spearheaded [the riots] among other peaceful protestors, who were expressing their rightful demands," the spokesperson said.

Thousands of Iranians have staged rallies in support of the government for several days to condemn the reported violence, believed to have been instigated by some hostile western and regional states, in more than a week of protests over deteriorating living standards, rising prices and widespread corruption.

They broke out as a peaceful demonstration in Iran's second largest city of Mashhad on Dec. 28 but gradually grew violent and spread to other major cities and dozens of small towns. Media reports put the death toll in clashes between police and rioters at 21, with hundreds more suffering injuries.

Montazerolmahdi declared the end of the protests, which had begun to show signs of abating since Wednesday.

  Majlis Meeting

Iran's parliament also hosted a meeting on Sunday, where top-level authorities involved in handling the protests reported to lawmakers.

Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli and Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi were among the senior officials who attended the meeting.

Tehran University Vice President Majid Sarsangi said the university has tasked a committee with tracking the fate of students arrested during the unrest.

"Our efforts at the university are aimed at cooperating with the relevant authorities to create the conditions for the return of the detained students to the university and their families in the shortest possible time."

According to lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeqi about 90 students were detained, 10 of whom were still not accounted for.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed as a foreign policy "blunder" a US attempt to rally international support for its hostile stance on Tehran by calling for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting on recent anti-government protests in Iran.

"The UNSC rebuffed the US naked attempt to hijack its mandate... Another FP [foreign policy] blunder for the Trump administration," Zarif said in a twitter message while the meeting was still ongoing on Friday.