Syria Diesel Prices Jump 40% Triggering Widespread Unrest

Syria raised diesel prices 40% and gasoline prices by as much as 28% on Saturday, and protesters blocked the highway linking Damascus to Aleppo and burned tires along the road to Turkey within 24 hours, the widest unrest since Bashar al-Assad's fall in December 2024. Diesel now costs 175 Syrian pounds a liter and household and industrial gas prices climbed roughly 9%. Protests also broke out in Hama, Khan Sheikhoun and Maarat al-Numan, and crude tanker convoys bound for refineries were halted en route. Syria's Energy Ministry called the increase a "temporary measure driven by higher global procurement costs," spokesperson Abdulhamid Salat said. Syria produces about 102,000 barrels of oil a day against domestic demand of roughly 325,000 barrels, the country's energy minister said, a shortfall Damascus has covered by importing roughly 60,000 barrels a day of Russian crude this year.