Iranian Rial hits record low as economic fallout from war takes hold - report

Iranian civilians are struggling to pay for fuel and other essentials as the Rial plunged to 2.3 million per one US dollar and the economic impact of war takes hold, according to a Thursday Wall Street Journal report.

The economic fallout from the war and the US's naval blockade on Iranian ports along the Strait of Hormuz is driving up the price of goods for Iranians, many of whom earn roughly $250 a month, according to a study by Euronews.

On Monday, the Iranian regime doubled the price of gasoline for users surpassing 110 liters per month. The increases targeted passenger vehicles exceeding their allocated quotas following Tehran’s slashing of monthly subsidies. The shrinking gas supply has reportedly left some drivers stranded without fuel, prompting taxi and truck drivers to go on strike.

The regime is also attempting to repair damage sustained by its refineries during the war and faces difficulties importing fuel and other goods due to the US naval blockade.

In a conversation with a representative for the Union of Truckers and Drivers Organizations Across Iran, a trade union representing the transport sector, a driver in northeast Iran said he had been stranded at a gas station with his family, unable to refuel.

The fuel crisis leaves drivers without work for a third of the month

“They say the gasoline is finished until tomorrow,” the driver said in the video. Workers across Iran have reportedly been protesting deteriorating living standards and are now being joined by transportation industry workers, who are disproportionately affected by the fuel shortages.

Late last week, 120 taxi drivers in the eastern Iranian province of Kerman said the government's fuel cuts left them out of work for a third of every month, according to the WSJ.

“We are waiting 20 days for passengers, 10 days struggling with fuel shortages!” one driver said.

Workers for Snapp, the Iranian delivery and ride-share service, went on strike across the country. The company is one of the largest employers in Iran, with roughly 3 million drivers nationwide, according to the WSJ. Rising costs and shrinking fuel rations have led dozens of Snapp employees to state they can no longer make ends meet.

“We’ve all stopped; no one is working,” said one of the drivers at a protest in Semnan, a city east of Tehran, in a video verified by Storyful.

The fuel crisis has also sparked protests among other parts of the transportation sector. Truck drivers on the border with Iraq went on strike to protest fuel shortages, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US NGO.

Last week, truckers in the port of Bandar Abbas along the Strait of Hormuz warned they might also go on strike, according to the WSJ.

“It is the driver and the driver’s family who have to pay for it from their pockets,” the port’s truckers said about fuel price hikes in a statement posted by Iran’s Union of Truckers and Drivers. “The issue is that we can no longer bear these pressures.”