Pompeo renews his support for the demonstrations in Iran

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reprinted a tweet he posted a year and a half ago on Twitter about Iran, renewing his country's support for Iranian protesters, amid street protests over rising gasoline prices.

Pompeo said in his new tweet that his country listened to the Iranian people and stood by them. At the same time, Washington has condemned the Iranian government's attempt to limit Internet access in the country.

"The United States stands with the long-suffering Iranian people as they protest the latest grievances of the corrupt regime," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagos said.

Iran suffered a near-total interruption of Internet access across the country amid continuing protests on Saturday evening.

"Iran is in the midst of a near-total national interruption of the Internet as of 18:45 local time on Saturday (1515 GMT)," the non-governmental NetBlocks said in a statement.

"Network data showed that communication dropped to only 7% of normal levels after 12 hours of gradual interruption of the network, as public protests continued throughout the country," Netbooks reported.

Netbooks is a civil society group that deals with digital rights, cybersecurity and Internet governance, and says it is seeking an "open and inclusive digital future."

Protests and crisis
Protests erupted in Iran hours after the announcement of a 50% increase in gasoline prices for the first 60 liters of gasoline purchased each month and 300% for each additional liter each month.

Authorities have begun legalizing the distribution of gasoline, saying the move aims to raise funds to help needy citizens and tackle fuel smuggling.

Earlier last year, Iran witnessed protests over the high cost, which suffers from severe inflation and high unemployment and economic recession, under tight sanctions imposed by Washington.