TEHRAN -- Interior Minister
Ahmad Vahidi said Wednesday security situation in Iran’s western border cities is calm, following a wave of deadly riots and unrest there.
Speaking to reporters, Vahidi however warned that despite calm prevailing in the cities bordering Iraq, terrorist and separatist groups on the other side of the borders seek to incite turmoil in those regions, urging officials to stay on alert.
Security concerns, he added, were raised during talks with new Iraqi Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani, who visited the Iranian capital on Tuesday.
Vahidi also said a fact-finding committee has been formed to investigate the scale of damage caused and the losses of innocent lives during the recent protests and deadly riots.
The interior minister said many of those arrested were from different foreign countries.
Several Iranian cities, especially those in border regions, witnessed a series of terror activities amid on-and-off protests and deadly riots in the country.
The unrest and ugly riots erupted in mid-September as many were protesting the death of an Iranian woman in police custody.
In a statement in late October, Iran’s main intelligence bodies elaborated on the role of foreign parties, particularly the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the occupying regime of Israel and the UK, in fueling violent riots in the Islamic Republic.