Fuel price protests grow in impoverished Syria

A wave of protests gathered across Syria's northeast region to decry rising fuel costs at a time the country is navigating a political and economic transition.

"Hundreds of oil tanker trucks were stranded in northeastern Syria’s Kurdish region Wednesday after demonstrators blocked a major highway near the town of Tal Tamr," the Associated Press reported.

Protests began in multiple cities as early as Sunday and have continued daily since then with blocked roads and burning tires.

An AFP correspondent said they saw demonstrators in Qamishli hold signs saying "no to the increase in fuel prices" and "no to the policy of starvation," along with chants of "our fuel is for the people."

Everything is too expensive

The government announced price changes for both diesel and petrol on Sunday, adding onto additional hikes made throughout the year but with a claim that they were temporary.

Al Jazeera reported, "since February, the price of 95-octane petrol has risen by about 86 percent, while diesel has more than doubled. Over the same period, benchmark Brent crude rose by about 44 percent."

Fuel is expensive these days largely because of the high global cost of oil that stems from the ongoing Israeli-US war on Iran and in the Strait of Hormuz, which includes attacks on energy fields and battles over safe maritime routes to deliver oil. It's adding to transportation, energy, and food costs in Syria.

The country is also trying to crawl out of more than 12 years of a crippling economy that was highly sanctioned under former dictator Bashar al-Assad. Nearly 90% of Syrians live under poverty, according to the UN, and so the price increments greatly impact those trying to make by.

"People don’t have money," a seller at a Damascus market told Al Jazeera.

Changes, changes in Syria

The protests are also taking place just shortly after a national military integration process was announced in Syria.

Less than a month ago, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was dissolved after more than a decade in existence. The US-backed group was a coalition of several militias and rebel groups with a goal to establish a secular and democratic Syria.

The group agreed in March of last year to be a part of the new Syrian government under Ahmed al-Sharaa, which came to lead the country after a sweeping rebel takeover that resulted in the surprising fall of al-Assad.

However, a brief bout of conflict erupted with the Syrian national government launching an offensive against the SDF in January this year. A ceasefire brokered by the US was reached for the integration to begin—and the dissolution to culminate on 25 August.

“Today, we stand at a historic moment in which we turn an important page in Syria’s history and begin to open a new page titled peace, stability and reconstruction,” SDF leader Mazloum Abdi said at the time.

“We want this day to be the beginning of a true transition from the battlefields to the fields of construction, and from the era of weapons to the era of peace."

Back to the fuel prices: The rise in costs is somewhat connected to the overall integration process because fuel used to be subsidized when northeast oil fields were under SDF control. The AP reported that local residents were surprised by the price changes after the subsidies expired.

Economic frustration can become "a real obstacle to the integration process," Syria-focused advisor at the International Crisis Group, Noah Bonsey, said to the AP.

“Among Kurds who are open to some of the benefits of integration, the rising cost of living undermines potential support."

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