Gasoline prices rise; Internet outages continue; Pompeo's statements condemned

Internet outage in Iran has exceeded 24 hours and telephone communications continue to be disrupted. Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the US Secretary of State’s support for the protesters “interventionist, hypocritical and deceitful.” At least 12 people have been killed.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's support for protests against high gasoline prices in Iran was met with a sharp response from the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Abbas Mousavi, a spokesman for the ministry, condemned Pompeo's remarks, saying: "The honorable people of Iran know very well that such hypocritical and deceitful comments do not contain any sincere and compassionate sympathy."

Pompeo assured Iranian protesters in a tweet on Sunday, November 17, that the United States supports them. He retweeted a message from the summer of the previous year, which said: “After forty years of oppression, the proud people of Iran will not remain silent about the abuses of their government. We will not remain silent either.”

Meanwhile, while domestic media reports of calm in most cities, internet connectivity in Iran is still unavailable and mobile communications networks are still disrupted. The internet shutdown, which began at 6:00 PM on Saturday, November 15, and was decided by the "National Security Council," has lasted for more than 24 hours, contrary to what officials have insisted.

Some official media outlets in Iran are still unavailable or access to them is slow and limited.

ISNA news agency quoted an official at the Ministry of Communications as saying: "The ministry is conducting extensive follow-up efforts to obtain the necessary permission to re-establish communications and notify operators of this in consultation with the SAC Secretariat."

Abdi: Rouhani should step down without tension

While 28 members of parliament are trying to collect signatures for a motion to impeach Rouhani, political analyst Abbas Abdi has proposed on his own channel, criticizing the government's decision to increase gasoline prices, suggesting Rouhani's resignation without tension.

Abdi writes in this note: "In my opinion, in the 40-year history of the revolution, the government has never been in such a difficult situation. Tension in foreign relations, severe economic problems and lack of budget, tension and rift with society and the people, complete distrust and spread of corruption, and worst of all, tension within the power structure, in such a way that the worst attacks against the government are not carried out from Tirana but from within the country and powerful institutions, and of course Mr. Rouhani also plays a role in this complex."

He considered the continuation of such a situation to be detrimental to the country and said: "It is not clear how the Yazd speech should be interpreted when they want to triple the price of gasoline, which requires comprehensive support. In any case, the continuation of this situation will only result in harm to the country. Tension is also dangerous. If Mr. Rouhani cannot or does not want to or thinks that he will not be allowed to reach a relative understanding at the government level, it is better not to continue and step down without tension. This situation is not in anyone's interest."

Rouhani: We had no choice

In a government meeting on Sunday evening, Rouhani explained and justified the tripling of gasoline prices, saying: "The basis and goal of the government in the livelihood support plan was to help middle- and low-income households under economic sanctions."

He stated that there were only three ways to do this: "Either we should increase taxes on the people and pay for them from their own resources. Or we should export more oil and use the oil money for these purposes, or we should reduce some of the subsidies."

According to Hassan Rouhani, the government can pay from 55,000 tomans per month for a single-person family to 205,000 tomans for other households. He promised that the payments would continue and that the prices of other goods would not increase due to the increase in gasoline prices.

Rouhani said that payments to 20 million people out of the targeted 60 million population will begin on Monday evening, November 17, and another 20 million recipients will be covered by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, the state-run IRNA news agency, in a video report, attributed the destruction of public property in Tehran and the damage caused to various cities during the recent protests to a number of individuals abusing the people's protests. Hassan Rouhani also considered the protest to be the people's right in a government meeting, but added that the protest is separate from the riot.

Domestic news agencies have not released figures on the number of dead and injured in the ongoing protests, but according to available reports, at least 12 people have been killed and dozens injured in the demonstrations. Some unconfirmed reports indicate that more than 30 people have been killed.

Source: DW