Proteste gegen Teuerungen in Jordanien
Activists in Jordan are calling for rare protests against new government policies to continue on Friday after they picked up pace overnight.
Anger over a proposed law to raise income tax first prompted a strike on Wednesday and has since been compounded by a rise in oil prices.
Jordanian news website 7iber’s live stream showed thousands demonstrating outside the prime ministry in the capital Amman on Thursday evening, chanting about the costs of fuel and bread, while Arabi 21 reported that protests had spread throughout the country.
A Facebook event set up overnight by the Jordanian Youth Movement page, and responded to by more than 13,000 people, called for protests to gather in the centre of the city on Friday night to reject the raising of fuel prices.
On Wednesday, Jordanian trade unions called a general strike that saw citizens from across society protest against proposed policies they felt hit them at a time when they were already struggling with living costs.
The law - which follows a key condition of a three-year IMF economic programme to bring down public debt - would significantly lower the income tax threshold. Banks and industrial firms would be forced to pay taxes at a time when economic growth has been stagnant and businesses have complained of shrinking consumer demand.