ANKARA:  A United Nations Security Council meeting that centered on anti-government protests in Iran was another foreign policy blunder of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, Iran's foreign minister wrote on his Twitter account.

"The UNSC rebuffed the US' naked attempt to hijack its mandate ... Another FP (foreign policy) blunder for the Trump administration," Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.

Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Gholamali Khoshroo told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday that the United States had abused its power as a permanent member of the Council by calling for a meeting on the turmoil in Iran, in which at least 22 people have been killed and over 1,000 arrested.

Khoshroo, echoing Iran's official stance, said his government had "hard evidence" that recent protests in Iran were "very clearly directed from abroad".

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said at the meeting that the United States stood "unapologetically with those in Iran who seek freedom for themselves, prosperity for their families, and dignity for their nation".

"We will not be quiet. No dishonest attempt to call protesters 'puppets of foreign powers' will change that. The Iranian people know the truth. And we know the truth," she said.

"They are acting of their own will, on their own behalf, for their own future. Nothing will stop Americans from standing in solidarity with them. In 2009, the world stood by passively while the hopes of the Iranian people were crushed by their government. In 2018, we will not be silent," Haley added. -reuters