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DUBAI—Iranian officials, including the country's most powerful opposition cleric, rallied behind the regime Sunday following last week's fresh United Nations sanctions and after security services managed to suppress protests intended to mark the anniversary of last year's contested presidential election.

Opposition supporters emailed accounts and videos of isolated protests and clashes across Iran Saturday, a year after the vote that triggered the worst internal unrest since the Iranian revolution. But security services fanned that out across many cities in a dramatic show of force, and streets were mostly quiet. Protest leaders who had sought permission to demonstrate in Tehran, reversed course late last week and advised supporters to stay at home.

Saturday's quiet anniversary represented the latest setback for the opposition, whose leaders have struggled to bring people back onto the streets after security forces increased efforts earlier this year to silence them.