Germany’s top diplomat says the European Union will invite Iran's foreign minister for talks about the widespread antigovernment protests that have rocked the country since December 28.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told ZDF TV in Berlin on January 7 that "together with the EU's foreign policy chief [Federica Mogherini], we agreed to invite the Iranian foreign minister, if possible next week."
"We very quickly affirmed that we support the freedom to demonstrate and that the state should support this," Gabriel said.
Still, he said, his country would not follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump, who vowed to help Iranian protesters "take back" their government.
Gabriel said that Germany, as well as France, has "warned against attempts at instrumentalizing the domestic conflicts in Iran."
There was no immediate reaction to the comments from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Instigators 'Defeated'
Gabriel’s remarks come after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said that antigovernment protests that it blames on foreign instigators have been "defeated."
In a January 7 statement, the IRGC said "Iran's revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police, and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain [of unrest] created...by the United States, Britain," Israel, Saudi Arabia, militants, and monarchists.
IRAN LIVE BLOG: Antigovernment Protests Reportedly Continue
The IRGC statement was issued after Iran's parliament held a closed-door session on January 7 to discuss the antigovernment protests that have rocked the country for more than a week.
The parliamentary session was called by a reformist faction of lawmakers who questioned security and intelligence officials about the causes of the unrest -- which Iran's government has also blamed on foreigners.
Parliament's ICANA website reported that lawmakers questioned Interior Minister Abdolrahmani Rahmani Fazli, Intelligence Minister Mahmud Alavi, and the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani.
It said some lawmakers voiced concerns about Internet controls put in place in the midst of the unrest, including a ban on Iran's most popular messaging app, Telegram, which officials said had been used to incite violence.
The government reportedly has lifted restrictions that it imposed on the Instagram social media tool.
But access to Telegram remained blocked on January 7, despite claims from Iran's FARS news agency that the restrictions on Telegram has been "fully lifted."
Pro-Government Rallies
"The parliament is not in favor of keeping Telegram filtering in place, but it must pledge that it will not be used as a tool by the enemies of the Iranian people," Behrouz Nemati, spokesman for the parliament's presiding board, said.
Almost a third of Iran's 80 million people use the Telegram app as their main source of news and as a way of bypassing the highly restrictive state media.
The United States and Israel have expressed support for the protesters, but deny allegations of fomenting them.
Iranian pro-government supporters march during a rally in support of the regime in the city of Mashhad late last week.
Meanwhile, state media on January 7 broadcast live footage of a fifth day of pro-government rallies organized by authorities.
State media has stopped reporting on antigovernment protests.
But RFE/RL has received credible reports that protests continued in at least nine cities across Iran on January 6, including Tehran, where social media footage showed gatherings despite a large police presence.
RFE/RL’s Radio Farda also obtained credible reports on January 6 from sources in Iran about overnight demonstrations against Iran's clerical rulers in Takestan, Arak, Masjed Soleiman, Mashhad, Qazvin, Rasht, Lahijan, and Khomein, the birthplace of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic.
More than a week of unrest has seen 22 people die and more than 1,700 arrested.
Various Iranian officials said on January 6 that hundreds of detainees had been released, some after agreeing to sign a pledge not to "re-offend," the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.
They include around 90 university students, lawmaker Mahmud Sadeghi was quoted as saying by ISNA.
Later on January 7, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, said that 70 of the detained protesters had been released on bail during the previous 48 hours.
Dolatabadi also said that there would be more releases from detention, except for the main instigators of the riots.
Reformists Deny Foreign Involvement
In a rebuke to Iranian government claims that the widespread demonstrations had been organized and/or instigated by foreigners, a group of 16 prominent reformist figures living in Iran issued a statement rejecting that argument.
In the January 6 statement, the signatories said, "Despite the fact the enemies of the country always try to take advantage of such events, we should know that any kind of foreign interference would not be possible without the existence of internal conditions."
They added that, in addition to the government claim of foreign involvement being "an insult" to Iranians, it leads to "negligence toward the real causes of the protests."
The reformist letter also went on to condemn "American interference," especially that of President Donald Trump, in the "internal affairs of Iran."
Most of the signatories to the statement are former officials or parliamentarians from the time of President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005).
Iranian émigrés also staged numerous antigovernment demonstrations in front of Iranian embassies around the world during the weekend -- including The Hague, Berlin and Hamburg, Stockholm, London, and Paris.