SOHR sources say that the Syrian coast is witnessing a growing popular discontent due to the lack of fuel for heating and transportation, in addition to the escalating crisis of bread and long queues at the centres, as is the case in all regime-held areas, with the regime’s inability to meet the needs of civilians of these basic materials for their daily lives.

One of the civilians has expressed his discontent regarding fuel crisis by saying: “As if it is the judgment day – it’s like going back to the days of my great-grandfathers – we are barely surviving – we are cooking and warming ourselves up by firewood like the days of the Stone Age.”

With the fuel crisis deepening in the Syrian regime-held areas, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has monitored a severe crisis in public transport in all major city centres in the regime-held areas, due to the worsening crisis again at gas stations.

Meanwhile, the Syrian pound’s value hit a new record low against foreign currencies as follows:  

• In Damascus: 2,870 SYP for buying and 2,900 SYP for selling against the dollar, while 3,495 SYP for buying and 3,530 SYP for selling against the euro.

• In Idlib and Aleppo countryside: 384 SYP for buying and 378 SYP for selling against Turkish lira.

On the other hand, the price of one gram of 21 carat gold has reached 151,400 SYP per gram in Damascus.

Yesterday, the Syrian Observatory pointed out that provinces in the Syrian regime-held areas are experiencing a growing fuel crisis, with the regime’s inability to meet the fuel needs of civilians, and the spread of corruption in the regime’s institutions responsible for distributing fuel.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has monitored a long lines of vehicles at gas stations in Damascus, Tartus, Aleppo and Latakia, where hundreds of cars are forced to queue for long hours to fill up with fuel.

The regime’s Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources issued yesterday a decision to reduce the amount of fuel allocated to citizens. The regime justified the decision by the scarcity of oil resources in the country in the light of the international sanctions.

The Ministry decided to temporarily reduce the oil allocations distributed to the provinces, by 17% for gasoline and 24% for diesel.

In this context, the phenomenon of selling fuel on the black market has emerged, where fuel is available at triple the price, as one liter of gasoline is sold for about 2,000 pounds while a liter of diesel is sold for about 1,500 Syrian pounds.