Iranian state media has mentioned the demonstrations that swept the country overnight for the first time, saying that "terrorist agents" of the US and Israel set the fires and caused the violence, the Associated Press reported, BTA reported.
The brief announcement on state TV at 8 a.m. was the first official statement on the demonstrations. It said the protests were violent and resulted in casualties, but gave no details.
It also reported that during the protests "private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the subway, fire engines and buses were set on fire".
The Iranian government has blocked the internet and international phone calls, making it difficult to contact people in the Islamic Republic, the AP recalls. However, the call by the exiled Iranian crown prince apparently sparked mass demonstrations from 8 p.m. local time on Thursday.
Short online videos shared by activists showed protesters chanting against the Iranian government around bonfires, and streets in the capital Tehran and other areas were littered with garbage. The full scale of the demonstrations, which continued into the morning, could not be immediately determined due to communications blackouts, although they were the latest escalation in protests that began over Iran's struggling economy and have become the government's biggest challenge in years.
The protests are also the first test of whether the Iranian public can be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose terminally ill father fled Iran just before the country's 1979 Islamic revolution. The demonstrations have included chanting pro-shah slogans, something that in the past could have led to a death sentence but now underscores the anger fueling the protests over Iran's struggling economy.
Violence surrounding the demonstrations has killed at least 42 people and more than 2,270 others have been detained, the US-based Iran News Agency reported. human rights activists. Pahlavi, who called for protests overnight, has called for demonstrations at 8 p.m. today.
"What turned the tide of the protests were former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi's calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8 p.m. yesterday and today," said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Institute for Near East Policy in Washington. "It was clear from the social media posts that Iranians responded and took the call to protest to overthrow the Islamic Republic seriously."
"That's exactly why the internet was blocked: to prevent the world from seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also probably gave security forces cover to kill protesters," Dagres added.