More reaction from the United States
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi:
Have the protests been coming?
BBC Persian says over the last six months protests were staged in at least 90 percent of cities that have been the scene of rallies in the last week.
Vice President Mike Pence's reaction to the protests in Iran:
Trump's national security adviser:
VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren interviewed General H.R. McMaster, national security adviser, at the White House on Jan. 2, 2018.
McMaster said the Iranian government “pays more attention to exporting terrorism than it does to meeting the needs of its own people.”
He added: What’s most important now is for the whole world to tell Iran that they have to respect the rights of their citizens and allow them to demonstrate peacefully and not to engage in the kind of violence against the demonstrators that we saw back in 2009.”
Voices From Iran
AFP has interviewed Iranians about the protests:
Sakineh Eidi, a 37-year-old pharmacist in Tehran: "The poorer section of society is really under pressure. But I don't think [the protests] will continue. Even those who maybe acted emotionally, vandalising things and setting fire to public property, know that the smoke will get into everyone's eyes and that insecurity in the country is not in anyone's interest."
Soraya Saadaat, a 54-year-old jobless woman: "People have reached a stage where they can no longer tolerate this pressure from the authorities."
Report: Iranian intelligence agents killed
Three Iranian intelligence agents killed in western city of Piranshahr, according to a report by the semiofficial news agency Mehr via Reuters:
Three members of Iran's intelligence forces were killed in clashes in the western city of Piranshahr on Wednesday, Mehr news agency reported, citing a statement from the Revolutionary Guards.
The three died "in a fight with anti-revolutionary elements" the statement read.
The statement did not say if the fight was related to the anti-government protests in Iran.
The Hard-Liner Tehran Blames For Igniting Iran's Protest Anger
By Golnaz Esfandiari
Once he decided to publicly address the antiestablishment unrest that's been roiling Iran since late last month, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on January 2 blamed foreign "enemies."
But reports claiming that an ultra-hard-line cleric and Khamenei ally in Iran's fundamentalist heartland has been summoned by the powerful national security council suggested that some elements of Iran's leadership think the initial cause might lie closer to home.
The cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, is a staunch critic of President Hassan Rohani, who came to power and won reelection last year pressing for mild social reforms and an opening up of Iranian society.