The street protests that have convulsed Iran over the past five days have been “curbed” and will soon stop, Iranian Deputy Interior Minister Hossein Zolfaghari was quoted as saying by local media on January 2. At least 21 people have died amid clashes between protesters and security forces, including a member of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Also on January 2, in his first reaction to events, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on his website: "In recent days, enemies of Iran used different tools including cash, weapons, politics and intelligence apparatus to create troubles for the Islamic Republic." He added that "when the time is right" he would address the nation about the recent events.

Khamenei did not name the enemies he had in mind but Tasnim news agency reported Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, as telling Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV that the US, UK and Saudi Arabia were behind the riots, which have included attacks on provincial police stations. "Saudis will receive Iran's unexpected response and they know how serious it can be," he reportedly said. US President Donald Trump has been tweeting daily in support of the protesters.

The protests appear to have grown out of provincial working class resentment at worsening hardship caused by Iran’s flagging economic recovery, partly caused by Trump’s refusal to get behind the sanctions-lifting nuclear deal strongly backed by all the major powers except the US. They took on a political dimension as various groups opposed to the theocratic republic’s regime tapped into the wave of anger, but the demonstrations may have failed to reach critical mass in terms of potentially toppling the ruling establishment given confused messaging as to what they were all about and the reluctance of many middle-class reformist activists in Tehran to join in with anything so radical as a call for regime change.

In his comments, Zolfaghari added that people were co-operating with the police, observing that they had not “gone along with saboteurs and those who disrupted public order.” local media reported.  “Police and security forces practised tolerance as long as state and private properties and military bases were not attacked. But those who resorted to violence were firmly dealt with,” he said.

Officials in Tehran, who reported more scattered protests with less demonstrators by January 1, said that by the end of the third day of the protests 450 people had been arrested in the capital and Tehran province. There has been no reliable word on the number of arrested people nationwide.

“Some of those arrested could face charges of Moharebeh [fighting with God] or acting against national security because they are linked to foreign intelligence services,” the Financial Times reported the head of the Tehran Revolutionary Court as saying on December 2. “Some betrayers who we were long looking for were finally arrested during these skirmishes,” he reportedly added.

Zolfaghari noted that 90% of those detained in the unrest were under 25-years-old. Youth unemployment in Iran is running at nearly 30% while there is also frustration at the slow progress made by centrist President Hassan Rouhani in delivering on promises of more social freedom.