Aref: Rising prices are distressing; we must be prepared for the worst scenarios

Aref: Rising prices are distressing; we must be prepared for the worst scenarios

🔸 Mohammadreza Aref, First Vice President of Iran, while acknowledging that the rising prices of goods have “a distressing situation,” warned that the United States is seeking to create dissatisfaction and social collapse in the country.

🔸 He said on Sunday in a meeting of the Market Regulation Headquarters that the country must be prepared for “the worst scenarios,” adding that the United States is “active in the economic and social front and is seeking to create dissatisfaction and social collapse.”

🔸 Aref is not the first senior official of the Islamic Republic to warn about the possibility of popular protests amid a worsening economic situation.

🔸 In recent days, videos have been published of gatherings by retirees protesting their living conditions and the lack of attention to their demands in various cities.

🔸 In another part of his remarks, Aref said: “Rising prices have taken on a distressing situation... the enemy’s strategy is to use the wave of increased prices, and all agencies must step onto the field to counter it.”

🔸 This comes as, over the past week, reports have been published about shortages of gasoline at some gas stations in Tehran and some other provinces, and at the same time, the plan to sell gasoline at a price of 87,200 tomans in Kerman province—which had begun from the first hours of early Thursday, 22 Mordad—was stopped within hours after it was implemented.

🔸 The President of Iran, last week, while acknowledging the impact of the United States’ naval blockade on Iranian ports, said that the route for bringing goods into Iran has been closed and the government does not have the resources needed to import gasoline.