Iran's government warns against 'illegal' gatherings after protests

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli warned Saturday that any groups wishing to congregate must file an official request and be granted permission.

"The police and security forces have tried to manage conditions. We have received reports of calls to gather, cyber and social media based, and such calls and any gatherings resulting therefrom, are certainly illegal," he said.

Meanwhile, crowds of government supporters joined official demonstrations held across the country on Saturday, state media reported.

Protesters have been heard on videos distributed on social media as chanting "Death to Rouhani," a reference to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, who was reelected earlier this year, but CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the footage.

Some protesters in these videos also pointedly targeted their ire at Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei -- a rare display of dissent, and something not widely seen in the pro-reform Green Movement protests, which disputed the outcome of that year's presidential elections.

Poorer Iranians have been involved in the new round of protests in a way that wasn't seen in the 2009 Green Movement, an eyewitness in Tehran noted. Iran currently sits 120th on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index, demonstrating the difficult economic situation in the country. The high youth unemployment rate is of particular concern for Iranians.

The pro-government rallies held Saturday had been organized in advance to commemorate mass demonstrations held in 2009 to challenge the pro-reform protests.

An eyewitness in Tehran said nearly 2,000 people had gathered peacefully for a pro-government rally there. State-run Iranian broadcasters showed demonstrators waving the Iranian flag.

Meanwhile, coverage of the anti-government protests was very limited on state-run media, which referenced them only in passing.

The White House voiced its support for anti-government protesters in a statement Friday.

"There are many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with the regime's corruption and its squandering of the nation's wealth to fund terrorism abroad," said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. "The Iranian government should respect their people's rights, including their right to express themselves. The world is watching."

US President Donald Trump subsequently tweeted the same message.

In a statement earlier Friday, the US State Department urged the international community to support the Iranian people's "demands for basic rights and an end to corruption."

"Iran's leaders have turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos," said spokeswoman Heather Nauert. "As President Trump has said, the longest-suffering victims of Iran's leaders are Iran's own people.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi pushed back against the US comments a day later, saying the Iranian people gave no credence to such "opportunistic" remarks by US President Donald Trump or his administration.

His statement on the Foreign Ministry website also described "Mr Trump's government" as the main source of ill will toward Iran.

Relations between Washington and Tehran are currently tense, with the Trump administration critical of what it sees as Iran's growing regional influence and alleged involvement in conflicts including Yemen and Syria.

Rouhani won a landslide re-election in May after campaigning largely on social reform. His campaign also touted the merits of the 2015 nuclear deal with the United States, the European Union and other partners which has been rejected by Trump.

Iranian officials have pointed to foreign intervention as being behind the anti-government protests.

"Unfortunately, most of the people who participate in these gatherings are unsophisticated individuals who are not aware that these calls for protest are made by anti-revolution elements," Mohsen Hamadani, Tehran deputy governor in charge of security affairs, was quoted as saying by the semi-official news agency ILNA.

"Most participants are not aware that anti-revolution elements are calling people to demonstrate against social issues such as inflation but chant untrue slogans."

Protesters have been temporarily arrested for participating in "illegal demonstrations," according to Hamadani, who said the demonstrators had not officially applied for permits to demonstrate.

The New York Times' chief diplomatic correspondent Steven Erlanger told CNN that the demonstrations were to some degree against Iran's involvement in Syria and other places, with protesters saying that the money spent there would be better used at home.

But, he said, the discontent also seems to be being fomented by opponents of Rouhani, a liberal in the Iranian context who backed the 2015 nuclear deal on the promise that sanctions would be lifted and life would be better for all Iranians.

That promise has proven difficult to live up to, in part because of the Trump administration's opposition and partly because foreign companies are wary of being punished by the American banking system for doing deals in Iran, Erlanger said.

While sanctions against Iran were eased under the 2015 deal in exchange for curbs on Tehran's nuclear program, US sanctions imposed over non-nuclear activities continue to have an impact.