Street clashes broke out across the Persian Gulf region on Monday as demonstrators in Iran, Bahrain and Yemen sought to capitalize on the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia and swept into the streets, where they were met by riot police.

The tumult in a region normally kept tranquil under the heavy-handed security of conservative Gulf regimes underscored the widening reverberations of new pro-democracy movements in the Middle East, though the protesters’ numbers have been small in comparison with the demonstrations that brought down the government of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt last week.

In Iran, thousands of people turned out for Monday’s street march, which marked the first major reformist demonstration since security forces put down widespread protests in December 2009, leaving eight people dead.

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