Mahmoud Sadeghi told the Iranian Students’ News Agency that many of them were not involved in protests.

Another MP, Farid Mousavi, said it was a preventative measure and they would be released soon.

At least 21 people have been killed in the protests, which erupted across the country over the state of the economy.

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday declared the defeat of what he described as “sedition” in the country.

Despite this, a number of towns and cities saw fresh protests overnight. However, Reuters, quoting local residents, said they were showing signs of abating after the Revolutionary Guards were sent to several provinces.

The unrest – the most widescale of its kind since a disputed presidential election in 2009 – initially began over price rises and corruption but protests have since turned into wider anti-government sentiment.

Some reports put the number of people arrested since 28 December as high as 1,700.

The vice-president of Tehran University, which has seen clashes in recent days, said a committee had been formed to track the fate of students who had been arrested.

“Our efforts at the university are aimed at co-operating with the relevant authorities to create the conditions for the return of the detained students to the university and their families in the shortest possible time,” Majid Sarsangi told the Iranian Students’ News Agency.

MP Mahmoud Sadeghi said little was known about at least 10 of the 90 students detained.

He told semi-official Ilna news agency that 58 were from universities in Tehran, and the rest from across the country.

Many of them, he said, had been arrested at their homes.

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Source: BBC

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The “temporary” restrictions on the apps Telegram and Instagram were imposed to “maintain tranquillity”, state news agency Irib reports.

The protests have been the biggest show of dissent since huge rallies in 2009.

President Hassan Rouhani has said Iranians have the right to protest, but not cause disorder.

The protests began in the north-east as an outcry against economic hardship and rising prices, but turned political in many places, with slogans chanted against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr Rouhani and Iran’s interventionist foreign policy in the region.

In his first public comments since the demonstrations broke out, the Iranian president, speaking at a cabinet meeting, said that citizens were “completely free to make criticism and even protests”.

But he added that the government would not tolerate any action that created “social disorder”, the Iranian Students News Agency reported.

After violence flared in many places on Saturday, it is unclear how many demonstrations are occurring on Sunday. Small crowds have gathered in Tehran and police have used water cannon to disperse protesters at a major intersection – as captured in a video obtained by BBC Persian.

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Source: BBC

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