AMMAN — The Muslim Brotherhood is set to return to the streets on Friday as nationwide protests over rising fuel prices continue to dwindle.
According to Muslim Brotherhood leaders, the country’s largest political movement plans to take part in an Amman rally on Friday, led by the National Front for Reform (NFR), an independent coalition of pro-reform parties and activists.
While set to take part in Friday’s rally as a “show of solidarity” with its opposition partner, the Islamist movement will officially hold its next rally on November 30, according to Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Overall Leader Zaki Bani Rsheid.
Friday would mark a return to the protest movement for the Brotherhood, which has largely been absent from the streets since since the outbreak of often violent demonstrations over fuel prices last week.
Under the slogan “A Popular Uprising for Reform”, the NFR is set to hold a march from the commercial district of Jabal Hussein to the Interior Ministry Circle in protest against a recent government decision to lift fuel subsidies.
In a press statement on Wednesday, the NFR, which is headed by former premier Ahmed Obeidat, stressed that slogans during the rally will be restricted to calls for “regime reform” in light of recent protests that demanded “regime change”.
Since the eruption of nationwide demonstrations over fuel prices last week, several protesters have called for “regime change” in Amman, a dramatic escalation for a two-year-old protest movement that has restricted its demands to reform of the country’s political system.
A vast majority of political parties and opposition coalitions have since distanced themselves from the calls for regime change.
Also on Friday, grassroots popular movements are set to hold rallies across the country to denounce the government decision, with protests planned for Karak, Tafileh, Maan, Karak, Aqaba, Salt and Irbid.
The Friday rallies come amid signs that the spate of nationwide protests over fuel prices are beginning to lose steam.
Eight days after the government decision to lift fuel subsidies, Thursday passed with only one demonstration in the capital.
In an evening rally in the Amman neighbourhood of Jabal Hussein, some 150 demonstrators called for the government’s resignation, chanting, “The people have made their decision — no to raising prices.”
Demonstrators also called on the authorities to release some 100 protesters that were detained since the outbreak of the riots, chanting, “No to martial law” and “Our protests are peaceful.”
The Thursday rally, held amid a heavy security presence, ended without incident, according to the Public Security Department.
Protesters assembled on Jabal Hussein’s Firas Circle and attempted to move the demonstration to the Interior Ministry Circle, a vital intersection linking east and west Amman and the northern governorates with the capital, but were blocked by Gendarmerie personnel stationed there.
Thursday marked an ongoing drop in participation in protests over the government decision to lift subsidies, which led to prices of 90-octane gasoline rising by 15 per cent, diesel and kerosene by 33 per cent and gas cylinders by 53 per cent.
During the protests, which erupted within one hour of the government’s decision on November 13, some 200 people were arrested, over 70 injured and one citizen died.
Despite the protests, the government has resisted calls to rescind its decision, claiming that the slashing of the JD800 million in annual subsidies was necessary to avert a national “financial crisis”.
