TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said here Tuesday Iran’s enemies are orchestrating a plot to harm the country through stirring riots.
"In the events of recent days, the enemies have made a pact and are using all their means, money, weapons, policies and security services to create problems for the Islamic establishment," the Leader said.
"The enemy is always looking for an opportunity and any crevice to infiltrate and strike the Iranian nation," the Leader told a number of martyr families.
Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran’s dignity, security, and progress is the fruit of the sacrifices made by martyrs, adding "what can stop the enemy from acting is the spirit of courage, sacrifice and faith of the people”.
Ayatollah Khamenei said he would address the nation about the recent events "when the time is right”.
The Leader touched on the deplorable situation in some West Asian and North African countries, which have been the target of foreign invasions.
The Leader commemorated the sacrifices made by Iranian soldiers who fought and lost their lives during the 1980-88 war with Iraq under the former dictator Saddam Hussein.
"If during the imposed Iraq-Iran war, the Ba'ath regime had entered our country, they would have not shown the slightest mercy towards anything or anyone and our situation could have been much worse than the situations in Syria and Libya today," he added.
Ayatollah Khamenei praised martyr families, saying "the value of the efforts put forth by the parents of these brave martyrs, their courage and their sacrifice is no less than their martyred sons and the country is beholden to them."
Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council said the United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia are behind the recent riots in Iran.
"Saudis will receive Iran’s unexpected response and they know how serious it can be,” Shamkhani was quoted as saying by Tasnim news in an interview with Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV.
Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Zolfaghari said the situation in most of the country has now returned to normal, vowing that the latest wave of unrest will soon come to an end.  
He said police and security forces had exercised maximum restraint in bringing the situation under control as long as there was no attempt to damage public property and military sites.
However, security forces "decisively countered the saboteurs” who resorted to violence, he added.
Zolfaghari said Iranian people clearly understood what was going on and therefore they distanced themselves from those disrupting public order and cooperated with authorities to restore security instead.
"In most parts of the country, the situation is now normal and the unrest that took place in certain areas will soon end with the people's cooperation and the efforts of security forces.”
Government spokesman Muhammad Baqer Nobakht said Iran's Constitution clearly distinguishes between rioting and protesting without disrupting public security.
He reiterated that the government respects people’s right to protest within a legal framework. "Even the rioters should be dealt with within the framework of law,” Nobakht said.
Naserbakht said the situation in Tehran was under control and police has not asked for the help of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s special forces.
Mehr news agency quoted a judiciary official as saying that several ringleaders of protests in Karaj, the fourth largest city in Iran, have been arrested.
Musa Ghazanfarabadi, head of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, said the detainees will be soon put on trial and the ringleaders would face serious charges.
Iran’s Judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani ordered prosecutors on Monday to "punish rioters firmly”.