Make New York Post a Preferred Source Motorists across Iran were trapped in grueling hours-long lines at gas stations and taxi drivers took to the streets in protest Saturday, as the state’s fuel rationing system reached a breaking point — hours before the infamous anniversary of “Bloody November.”
In one video shared on Telegram, drivers at a gas station in the southern city of Kazeroun are heard shouting in anger about the fuel shortages.
“To the officials: don’t mess with Kazeroun. This city has shown many times that it does not remain silent in the face of neglect and ignoring the demands of the people,” one Iranian Telegram account commented Saturday.
“These days, long queues at gas stations in Kazeroun have become one of the main concerns of the people.”
In other videos, lines of cars can be seen stretching for miles in southern Iranian cities that include Kazeroun, Bandar Abbas, Evaz and Lordegan.
In Ardabil in the north, footage shows taxi drivers parking their cars in protest, leaving passengers stranded as they refuse to pick them up.
Sunday marks seven years since Iran was rocked by “Bloody November.”
Just after midnight on Nov. 15, 2019, Iran announced a dramatic price hike — from 10,000 to 15,000 rials per liter for the first 60 liters of gas a month, then 30,000 rials after that — an increase of 50% and 300%, respectively, overnight.
Within hours, nationwide protests sparked, with Iranians blocking highways with their cars, burning banks and tearing down images of then Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
After a day of unrest, the iron-fisted Ayatollah told senior commanders to “do whatever it takes to end it,” resulting in one of the deadliest crackdowns in the Islamic Republic’s hardline history.
An estimated 1,500 Iranians were slaughtered over the course of less than two weeks.
Fearing a possible repeat, the government has avoided another price hike since, instead rationing gasoline to 160 liters a month per vehicle.
But a collapsing economy, due to Washington’s crippling sanctions, government corruption and now the US blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, has deeply worsened shortages and put tensions inside Iran on the brink.
Until last month, Iranians could fill up with a gas station’s own “emergency card” after they ran out of their monthly ration, at a higher price of 100,000 rials. That accounted for nearly half the gasoline sold across the country.
But since Nov. 1, the regime has taken away emergency cards in more than a third of Iran, with plans to strip the rest within weeks.
A state official even admitted this week, “we really have a supply problem” — in comments that have raised the ire of the government, Iran International reported.
“All the gasoline the government has, it has given to the people,” said Esmail Sagheb Esfahani, vice president of the State Energy Efficiency Agency. “Nothing has been held back to supply more.”
