TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Protests in Iran triggered by petrol price hikes last week have subsided, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday, a day after the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) warned of "decisive” action if rioters continue to take advantage of the situation to wreak havoc.
"Calm has been restored in the country,” Judiciary spokesman Gholamhussein Esmaili told a news conference.
Several people, including members of the security forces and police, have been killed in the protests that began on Friday after fuel price rises of at least 50 percent were announced, and around 1,000 "rioters” arrested, authorities said.
Three members of the security forces were stabbed to death near Tehran, ISNA news agency reported late on Monday.
National TV said funerals will be held for security guards martyred in the protests, adding that "thousands of Iranians have staged rallies in several cities to condemn the unrest”.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Sunday said Iran’s foreign foes, including the United States, were encouraging the riots by "thugs”.
On Monday, the IRGC warned of "decisive” action if the violent riots continue, in which public property has been destroyed and banks and gas stations set on fire.
The United States, which quit an international nuclear deal with Iran last year and reimposed sanctions on Iranians, supported the rioters.
"As I said to the people of Iran almost a year and a half ago: The United States is with you,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted.
Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif took a swipe at the U.S. as well as some European officials, describing the West’s claim to support the Iranian people as "a shameful lie”.
"Lawful protest is the people’s right, which has been recognized in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and there is no need for a reminder or hypocritical support from regimes that have officially announced that they aim to force Iran to give in to their illegitimate and unlawful demands by imposing economic pressure on Iranian citizens, even on their food and medicine,” Zarif said.
He said Pompeo should first be held accountable for "declared acts of terrorism and crimes against humanity against the Iranian people”.
Zarif also slammed some European allies of the U.S. and said, "Countries that have failed to demonstrate their power and will against U.S. economic terrorism and now provide political and field support for chaos and disruption of public order (in Iran) to hide their inability will bear all the consequences of their dangerous provocations.”
Following a hike in the price of gasoline on Thursday midnight, a number of Iranian cities saw sporadic protests that turned violent in some cases. A number of banks and government buildings have been set ablaze.
In an address on Sunday morning, Ayatollah Khamenei warned that the sporadic protests and acts of vandalism in Iran would create insecurity.
Describing insecurity as the worst calamity for a society, the Leader said "all evil centers in the world” have mobilized efforts in recent days to encourage unrest in Iran.
The Leader also called on the people to separate themselves from a group of thugs who are encouraged by the foreign-based anti-Iranian front to foment insecurity.
Frustration has grown over currency devaluation and spikes in prices of bread, rice and other staples since Washington began to apply "maximum pressure” on Iran to make nuclear and security concessions.
The government said the price rises were intended to raise around $2.55 billion a year for extra subsidies to 18 million families struggling on low incomes.
IRNA news agency said handouts to the poor had started on Tuesday.