TEHRAN -- Minister of Information Ali Younessi here on Wednesday praised the massive crackdown by the French police on the outlawed Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) and said 'sooner or later other countries will also do the same'.

Younessi said based on the UN charter all countries have the duty to confront terrorist groups as Iran did with Al-Qaeda forces.

"We are happy with this measure by France … They have acted according to their duty. Sooner or later other countries will also do the same," he told a group of reporters after his closed door Majlis briefing on his ministry's performance in the case of the recent student unrest to protest the privatization of universities.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi in an interview with IRNA here on Wednesday also said recent operations by the French police against the so-called MKO were 'praiseworthy' considering the 'terrorist and dangerous' nature of the outfit.

French anti-terrorist police on Tuesday launched a major crackdown on the MKO on the outskirts of Paris and detained 165 people, including one of the terrorist organization's leaders, Maryam Rajavi.

Assefi told IRNA that a comprehensive judicial investigation into the activities of the MKO will reveal the atrocities that the group perpetrated against the Iranian nation over the past years.

"The Islamic Republic is determined to seriously continue its cooperation in fighting terrorism," he added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Younessi told reporters that confrontation against the so-called plainclothesmen will be a national drive to be strongly confronted.

He said some of the plainclothesmen have been arrested and actions will continue. All governmental institutions, including the ministries of the Interior, Information, and Research, Science and Technology as well as the police are currently studying the recent unrest.

"We are trying to make a distinction between the students and the rioters, and thanks God it has been fulfilled," Younessi said. He added that his ministry would hand over the accused to the Judiciary.

"The US had pinned hopes on the unrest but soon it found out that it had made a mistake," said Younessi.

Tehran and several other Iranian cities have been boiling for eight consecutive days in unrest, which was sparked by hostel protests at Tehran University dorm against alleged privatization of universities and academic centers.

Although several police and anti-riot units had a strong presence at the scene, the baton-wielding Ansar-e Hezbollah stopped the cars and threatened to break the windshields if the drivers honked. There were shattered glass on the street.

Also, in Sattarkhan Street, western Tehran, a group of thugs set several tires ablaze and tried to create disorder but were dispersed by police.

In Kermanshah, western Iran, the students of Razi University staged a rally at the university's campus. However, a group of hooligans joined the students to misuse the rally by throwing stones at the police. This left several people wounded and the windows of several shops broken.

Still, the students agreed to end the rally after the officials of Razi University as well as Governor General of Kermanshah province Esfandiar Zakeri asked them to do so.

Zakeri told IRNA that a small number of people had been arrested on Tuesday evening's unrest in the city, adding that all had been released after identification.

Meanwhile, the agitators in Karaj, western Tehran, broke the windows of a bank and a drugstore in separate incidents late Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning. Several anti-riot troops and people were wounded in the incidents.

Police in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, have reported that some 30 people were arrested in connection with the unrest in the city on Tuesday evening.

The police have also reported that 50 instigators have been arrested in rallies in the central city of Yazd.

Further clashes have been reported in the northwestern city of Tabriz that local officials say have lead to the arrest of 90 people.

A brief meeting by students at Tehran University's dorm to protest alleged privatization of universities turned into an angry rally last Tuesday that was followed by several days of late evening demonstrations.

The police have been heavily stationed at the dorm over the past week. No clash between the police and students has been reported.

The police have tried to keep the Ansar-e Hezbollah away from the students to prevent a confrontation and avert the recurrence of the group's violent raid into the dorm in 1999 that left one killed and several others badly wounded thus sparking three days of unrest in Tehran.

However, the Ansar-e Hezbollah, lead by Saeed Asgar, who carried out a failed assassination attempt on Saeed Hajjarian, a member of the former Tehran City Council in 2000, stormed into the dorm of Tehran's Allameh Tabatabaei University early Saturday morning, beat up some 80 students and destroyed their properties.

Police forces on Sunday announced that they had arrested Asgar and several of his secondary members.