Published: · Region: Middle East · Category: markets

Iran’s Fuel Shortages Expose Domestic Strain as U.S. Blockade Bites

Iran’s own leaders are now acknowledging that a U.S.-led maritime blockade and war costs are choking fuel supplies and driving up living costs at home. From gas station queues to Tehran’s budget crisis, the pressure is moving from the Gulf’s sea lanes into ordinary Iranians’ daily lives — and into the regime’s room for maneuver.

Iran’s confrontation with the United States and its regional adversaries is no longer an abstract strategic contest in the Gulf; it is starting to empty fuel pumps and strain household budgets inside Iran itself. On 16 August, the spokesperson for the Energy Committee in Iran’s parliament, Reza Safahvand, said in an interview with an Iranian news agency that the country is “having difficulty supplying fuel for vehicles due to the blockade” and that gasoline imports have been halted. Safahvand, speaking as an official representative of the regime, linked the shortages directly to what he described as a maritime blockade affecting Iran’s ability to bring in fuel. Almost in parallel, President…

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