ALEPPO: A sharp rise in fuel prices at the weekend has sparked protests across Syria, in the country’s most widespread demonstrations since the toppling of Bashar al-Assad al-most two years ago.
Demonstrators burned tyres and blocked key roads, including the highway linking the capital Damascus to the industrial hub of Aleppo, after Syria’s government on Saturday raised diesel prices by 40% to 175 Syrian pounds ($1.32) a litre.
The price increases piled further pressure on Syrians facing years of economic crisis. The United Nations Development Programme estimates 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line, compared with about a third before the Syrian civil war began in 2011.
In the steepest of several price hikes announced since the Iran war began, the government also raised household and industrial gas prices by about 9%, 95-octane gasoline by 28% to 195 pounds and 90-octane gasoline by 26% to 185 pounds. Protesters also blocked convoys of crude tankers travelling towards refineries in central Syria, with some demanding the dismissal of the energy and economy ministers and the head of the Syrian Petroleum Company.
“We don’t want higher wages. All we want is lower diesel and other fuel prices,” Yasser Salim told Reuters in Aleppo.
Bassam al-Ali, also protesting in Aleppo, appealed directly to President Ahmed al-Sharaa, saying the situation was untenable.
“Border crossings bring in millions of dollars. We don’t want new roundabouts or malls. We just want to live,” he said. –Agencies
