PARIS, France, Jan 18, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Iranian authorities on Saturday said they had arrested members of the Bahai minority they accused of having been active in what they call "riots", the Tasnim news agency reported, after the wave of protests that gripped the country.

The Bahais, Iran's biggest non-Muslim religious minority, regularly experience persecution and the Islamic republic has accused its members of being spies linked to Israel.

"A 32-member network of the Bahai espionage cult who were active in the riots and acts of vandalism were identified and 12 main agents were arrested and 13 were summoned," the intelligence ministry said, quoted by Tasnim.

It said the network was active across Iran, including in the capital Tehran, adding that "their main hideout was located in Mashhad" in the east.

Iran was rocked by weeks of demonstrations sparked by anger over economic hardship that exploded into the biggest protests against the Islamic republic in more than three years.

But demonstrations have subsided after the crackdown that rights groups say left thousands of people dead.

Human Rights Watch said in 2024 that the "Iranian authorities' decades-long systematic repression of Bahais... amounts to the crime against humanity of persecution".

It is unclear how many members of the minority remain in Iran, but their supporters believe there could still be several hundred thousand.