Larijani—and everyone else—has been mum about subsidies since they were formally lifted December 19, almost five months ago. The silence could only have been imposed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi. The fact that Larijani spoke out last Thursday means Khamenehi has lifted the ban since the conflict between the Leader and the President over the post of intelligence minister.
Larijani was very careful not to criticize the concept of lifting sanctions; that has been endorsed by the Supreme Leader himself and thus is above criticism. What Larijani criticized was the implementation of the shift from subsidies to cash welfare by the president.
Larijani complained that Ahmadi-nejad had not done what the law passed by the Majlis required when he lifted sanctions.
Larijani picked a rather technical issue. According to the Mehr news agency, the speaker complained that in lifting sanctions the president failed to include the 20 percent of subsidies allotted to the production sector. This has never been a major issue.
More significantly, Ahmadi-nejad boosted the price of gasoline in one fell swoop to the market rate in December. Ahmadi-nejad had originally proposed phasing out the gasoline subsidies over three years and he was furious when the Majlis voted to spread the phaseout over five years. He has never explained why he ended up dropping the gasoline subsidies in a single day.
The criticism by Larijani suggests that Khamenehi will no longer protect Ahmadi-nejad from criticism over his conduct. That could open the floodgates.