Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said on Jan. 5 that during the protest lasted a week, the number of people who attend the most crowded rally did not exceed 42,000.
"It was the government's tolerance, moderation and indulgence that allows protests take that long," Fazli said.
This is the first time authorities have given a figure for the total number of participants in the protests.
Beginning 28 December 2017 in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city by population, protests focused on the economic policies of the government; however, as protests spread throughout the country, their scope has expanded to political opposition to Rouhani's administration.
The Iranian government asserted that the violence in the protests is incited from abroad, slammed the attempts of Trump's administration to benefit the probable instability in Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration persistently expressed their support to those took the streets, saying "regime should be overthrown on behalf of Iranian people."
