Protesters burn tyres on Jerash Circle in Mafraq Governorate, 80km northeast of Amman, on Thursday. The demonstrators demanded that the government rescind a decision to lift fuel subsidies (Petra photo)

AMMAN — The Muslim Brotherhood told a senior government official late Wednesday it would “calm protests” against a government decision to lift subsidies in return for a list of demands that include limiting the King’s constitutional powers.

Meanwhile, opposition parties led by the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), said Thursday that they “would not leave the grass-roots protest movements alone in the streets facing the authorities” as they rally against the government’s recent decision to increase prices of fuel. An inside source from the Islamist group said in remarks to The Jordan Times that the Muslim Brotherhood “is not yet in the streets with its full weight”.

The government approached the Islamists in a bid to help calm down the street, but the group’s leaders said it was “too late”, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The IAF issued a statement on Thursday listing again its demands in return for their help to soothe the public anger over the hike in fuel prices.

The statement came after a meeting with Deputy Prime Minster and Minister of Interior Awad Khleifat late Wednesday, attended by IAF Secretary General Hamzah Mansour, the Brotherhood’s deputy overall leader Zaki Bani Rsheid and president of the IAF shura council Ali Abul Sukkar.