Iran slams U.S. "interference" in internal affairs

TEHRAN, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned U.S. "interference" in the country's internal affairs.

In a statement on Saturday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that "meddling" remarks of the U.S. president and his support for recent protests in some Iranian cities are "opportunistic and deceitful."

On Friday, protests erupted in some Iranian major cities over the government's potential move to raise the prices of some basic commodities including fuel and bread.

In the capital Tehran, holy cities of Mashhad and Qom as well as Isfahan and Qazvin, people took to the streets to protest the mishandling of economy by President Hassan Rouhani's administration.

The videos posted on social media showed police trying to disperse the crowd by using tear gas and water cannons.

"The great Iranian nation regards the opportunist and duplicitous support of the U.S. officials for certain gatherings in some Iranian cities as nothing but the deceit and hypocrisy of the U.S. administration," Press TV quoted Qasemi as saying.

In a tweet on Friday, the U.S. President Donald Trump made remarks about the recent gatherings in protest against economic conditions in Iran and said the Iranian government should "respect their people's rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching!" Enditem