Gasoline Price Hike; Continued Internet Outage; Condemnation of Pompeo’s Remarks

Internet outage in Iran has exceeded 24 hours and telephone communication disruptions continue. Iran’s Foreign Ministry described U.S. Secretary of State’s support for protesters as “interventionist, hypocritical, and unwarranted.” At least 12 people have been killed.

Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State’s support for protests against gasoline price hikes in Iran faced a sharp response from Iran’s Foreign Ministry. Abbas Mousavi, spokesman for the ministry, condemned Pompeo’s remarks, saying: “The dignified people of Iran are well aware that such hypocritical and unwarranted statements contain no genuine sympathy or compassion whatsoever.”

On Sunday, November 26 (November 17), Pompeo had assured protesting Iranian citizens in a Twitter message that the United States stands with them. He reposted a message from summer a year earlier that read: “After forty years of oppression, the proud people of Iran are not silent about their government’s abuses. Neither will we.”

Meanwhile, while domestic media report the restoration of calm in most cities, internet access in Iran remains unavailable and mobile communication networks are still disrupted. The internet outage, which began at 6 PM on Saturday, November 25 following a decision by the “National Security Council,” has lasted longer than 24 hours, contrary to officials’ assurances.

Some official Iranian media outlets remain inaccessible or access to them is slow and limited.

IRNA news agency, citing an official at the Ministry of Communications, reported: “The ministry is undertaking extensive follow-ups to coordinate with the SWAC secretariat to obtain necessary permissions for restoring communications and communicating them to operators.”

Abdi: Rouhani Should Step Down Without Tension

While 28 parliament members have begun collecting signatures for an impeachment motion against Rouhani, political analyst Abbas Abdi, on his channel, while criticizing the government’s decision to increase gasoline prices, has proposed Rouhani’s resignation without tension.

Abdi writes in this note: “In my view, throughout the 40-year history of the revolution, the government has never been in such a critical situation. Tension in foreign relations, severe economic problems and budget shortages, tension and rifts appearing with society and people, complete distrust and spread of corruption, and worst of all, tension within the structure of power such that the worst attacks against the government come not from enemies but from within the country and powerful institutions, and of course Mr. Rouhani also plays a role in this whole situation.”

He considered the continuation of this condition harmful to the country and said: “When they want to triple the price of gasoline, it is unclear how one should interpret the Yazd speech when complete support is needed? In any case, the continuation of this situation will result in nothing but damage to the country. Tension is also dangerous. If Mr. Rouhani cannot, or does not want to, or thinks he is not allowed to reach relative understanding at the government level, it is better not to continue and to step down without tension. This situation is not in anyone’s interest.”

Rouhani: We Had No Choice

On Sunday evening in a cabinet session, Rouhani, explaining and justifying the tripling of gasoline prices, said: “The government’s basis and objective in proposing the livelihood support plan was to help middle and low-income families under economic sanctions conditions.”

He stated that there were no more than three ways to do this: “Either we would have to increase people’s taxes and pay from that source. Or we would have to export more oil and use oil revenues for these purposes, or we would have to reduce some subsidies.”

According to Hassan Rouhani, the government can pay between 55,000 tomans per month for a single-person household to 205,000 tomans for other households. He promised that payments would continue and the prices of other goods would not rise because of increased gasoline prices.

Rouhani said that payment to 20 million people of the 60 million population targeted will begin Monday evening, November 27, and by the end of the week, another 20 million recipients will be covered.

Meanwhile, government news agency IRNA in a pictorial report attributed the destruction of public property in Tehran and damages in various cities during recent protests to the misuse of the protests by some individuals. Hassan Rouhani also in the cabinet session acknowledged that protest is people’s right but added that protest is different from rioting.

Domestic news agencies have not released statistics on deaths and injuries from ongoing protests, but according to available reports, at least 12 people have been killed and dozens injured in the demonstrations. Some unconfirmed reports suggest more than 30 people have been killed.

Source: DW