DUBAI: Iranians have rushed to gas stations to fill their cars before a price surge expected at midnight on Thursday, as President Hassan Rouhani pushes ahead with a policy to cut fuel subsidies.

The new prices of subsidised petrol, diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) have not been announced, but the increases will test Rouhani’s support among a population battered by soaring inflation that has been exacerbated by economic sanctions.

With memories of riots at the pumps when cheap fuel was rationed for the first time, in 2007, police are on the alert, but do not

expect trouble, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said.

“We have been preparing for two months to implement these plans in provinces, cities and rural areas,” state news agency IRNA quoted Rahmani Fazli as saying on Thursday “Considering the planning, it is expected that the second phase of target subsidies will take place without any problems or displeasure from people.”

Rouhani’s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, last cut subsidies for fuel, food and utilities in December 2010.

There were no riots, but the impact on inflation - which shot up from a record low of 8.8 per cent in August 2010 to around 40pc by the end of his term, exacerbated by tightened Western sanctions — was a major cause of public resentment.

Rouhani, who secured a surprise election win last June, has taken Iran into substantive talks with world powers on Iran’s nuclear programme, hoping to get Europe and the United States to lift their sanctions.