'The world is watching'

President Donald Trump on Friday condemned the arrest of protesters in Iran, telling Tehran that "the world is watching" as officials reported fresh demonstrations over the country's struggling economy.

Fifty-two people were arrested in Iran's second city Mashhad on Thursday, the first day of the protests, which also took place in other areas and spread to the capital Tehran as well as Kermanshah the following day.

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"Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime's corruption & its squandering of the nation's wealth to fund terrorism abroad," Trump tweeted.

"Iranian govt should respect their people's rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching! #IranProtests."

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly taken aim at Iran, denouncing its government as a "fanatical regime" and accusing it of violating an international agreement aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear program, refusing to certify its compliance with the deal.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also addressed the protests.

"The United States strongly condemns the arrest of peaceful protesters. We urge all nations to publicly support the Iranian people and their demands for basic rights and an end to corruption," she said in a statement.

Iran said yesterday that US President Donald Trump's support for protests in the country was "deceitful and opportunist".

"The Iranian people see no value in the opportunistic remarks by American officials and Mr Trump," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said on its website.

He said Iranians remembered Trump's actions in barring them from entry to the United States and "the arrest of many Iranians in that country on baseless pretexts".

"That's why they see the support of these officials for some rallies in recent days in some Iranian cities as opportunistic," he added.

"The constitution of the Islamic republic of Iran has established democratic structures for the legal support of people's civil demands," he said.

PROTESTS AT TEHRAN UNIVERSITY

Meanwhile, students protested in Tehran yesterday in a third day of demonstrations sparked by anger over Iran's economic problems, videos on social media showed, but were outnumbered by counter-demonstrators.

The pro-regime students shouted "Death to the seditionists" as they seized back control of the entrance of the University of Tehran, videos published by several local news agencies showed.

It followed a relatively small protest by several dozen students, with videos on social media showing scuffles with police and chants against the regime.

"The opportunists who wanted to benefit from the situation have been dispersed with the arrival of (the other) students," the conservative-linked Tasnim news agency reported.

The numbers appeared to be smaller than demonstrations seen across other major towns and cities on Thursday and Friday, which had been sparked by high living costs but quickly turned against the Islamic regime as a whole.

The conservative-linked Fars news agency said "harsh chants" were heard at the Tehran protests and that riot police had been dispatched to the scene.

"Unlike other protests in various cities which were against the economic situation and high prices, the one in front of the University of Tehran was political," Fars said.

The students repeated a popular chant of "Not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran" -- an expression of anger over claims the government is focusing more on regional issues than problems at home.