Sputnik News- The Iranian authorities opened access to the Instagram photo-sharing app, the Mehr news agency reported Friday, adding that Telegram messaging app still remains blocked.




The Instagram and Telegram social media apps were blocked�on December 31, 2017, as�they were being used by�activists to�exchange messages about�the rallies.

As Iranian Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi has explained on�January 1, the restricted access to�social networks amid�ongoing protests against�the government's economic and social policy was a temporary measure.

Anti-government protests have been blazing across�Iran since�December 28 as�a response to�worsening economic conditions in�the country, high fuel and food prices, unemployment, inflation and air pollution. The social unrest has resulted in�some 20 deaths and about�450 detentions.

Tehran�has stated that the people of�Iran have the�"constitutional right"�to�protest peacefully over�economic and social problems, but�also said that forces�supported from�abroad, including from�the US, Israel and�Saudi Arabia, were involved in�the protests, aiming to�destabilize the country.

On January 4, the country's top prosecutor stated directly the foreign powers behind�the unrest:�US, Israel and Saudi Arabia, naming a CIA official as�being the alleged mastermind of�the protests.

The protests were announced as�over by�Maj. Gen.�Mohammad Ali Jafari, the chief of�the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps�(IRGC) on�January 2, when he stated that the riot of�the year "had failed."