THE Trump administration has committed another foreign policy “blunder” in its move to call an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the protests in Iran, according to the country’s foreign minister.

Writing on Twitter, Javad Zarif said the Security Council had “rebuffed the US’s naked attempt to hijack its mandate”.

He said the majority had stressed the need to fully implement the US-Iran nuclear deal and to refrain from interfering in the affairs of other countries, and wrote: “Another FP [foreign policy] blunder for the Trump administration.”

President Donald Trump has voiced his encouragement for anti-government demonstrations which broke out in Iran.

The US called the UN meeting on Friday after giving moral support to the demonstrations, saying the protests that began last week as a human rights issue could spill over into an international problem.

But Russia and some other countries said the UN’s most powerful body had no business weighing in on the demonstrations.

“The world should applaud their courage” and amplify their message, said US ambassador Nikki Haley.

“The Iranian regime is now on notice: The world will be watching what you do.”

The Iranian resistance and opposition in exile – NCRI – had urged the Security Council to “defend the legitimate and inalienable right of the Iranian people to overthrow the religious fascism ruling Iran”. It also called for the condemnation of the clerical regime and for it to be held accountable “for killing defenceless and unarmed demonstrators”.

In a statement, NCRI said: “At least 50 protesters have been shot and killed by the Revolutionary Guards during the first eight days of the uprising, and more than 3,000 have been arrested.

“Children as young as 12 or 13 years old are among those killed.”

However, Russia and Iran complained that the US was dragging a council focused on international security into what they called a domestic matter.

“The United States is abusing the platform of the Security Council,” said Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, whose country has close ties to Iran, adding: “Let Iran deal with its own problems.”

Envoys from several other countries, from China to newcomer Equatorial Guinea, expressed reservations about whether the council was the right forum for the issue.

The UN charter empowers the council to “investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction”, and the US was not alone in thinking the Iranian protests qualified.

“It is right and proper - indeed, our responsibility... to assess whether a situation like this could become a threat to international peace and security,” said British ambassador Matthew Rycroft before the meeting.

His Dutch counterpart Karel van Oosterom said his country hoped the meeting could “work as a preventive measure to avoid further escalation of violence”. He called on the Iranian government to set up a process to address any serious human rights violations and hold accountable anyone involved.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, meanwhile, has said security forces have ended the unrest linked to the anti-government protests.

The guard’s official website yesterday blamed the unrest on the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as the exiled opposition group and supporters of the monarchy that was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The protests were the biggest seen in Iran since the disputed 2009 presidential election, and some demonstrators called for the overthrow of the government.