TEHRAN – The spokesman for the Guardian Council of the Constitution said that opposing executive decisions is an inevitable right of the people, but stressed that public properties should not be damaged in the protests. 

Pointing to a recent rise in gas price and the people’s reaction to it, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei wrote in his tweeter account that “persuasion and satisfaction of the people, no surprising them, are necessary while implementing important decisions.”

“Opposing executive decisions is a right of the people, but, (in protests) public order and properties and national unity and consensus should not be harmed,” he remarked. 

Very late on Thursday, the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) issued a statement to recount details for new prices of gasoline in the country, which was followed by another statement in early Friday by Vice-President and Head of the Management and Planning Organization (MPO) Mohammad Baqer Nobakht who said that the revenues will be paid in the form cash subsidy to 60 million people.

On Saturday, Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri gave a stern warning to those who try to disrupt the society’s security, noting that the people will not allow such rancorous elements to derail their economic-based protests against gas price rise. 

“The people will certainly separate their path from a small number disruptors who have embarked on blocking roads and attacking public places. The people surely hate such violent acts,” the prosecutor general said.

“Based on law, such disruptive acts are considered as crime, so the police and judicial bodies are committed to counter those disruptors who embark on damaging public properties and places,” he stressed.

MJ/PA