Syria Says Crude Oil Supplies to Arrive ‘Soon’ from Friendly Countries

Cars line up at a gasoline station as they wait to fuel up in Aleppo, Syria. (Reuters)
Cars line up at a gasoline station as they wait to fuel up in Aleppo, Syria. (Reuters)
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Syria Says Crude Oil Supplies to Arrive ‘Soon’ from Friendly Countries

Cars line up at a gasoline station as they wait to fuel up in Aleppo, Syria. (Reuters)
Cars line up at a gasoline station as they wait to fuel up in Aleppo, Syria. (Reuters)

Syria’s Oil Minister Bassam Tohme announced on Sunday a partial breakthrough in the country’s recent gasoline crisis, pointing to the arrival of new crude oil supplies “soon.”

Ending the crisis depends on the arrival of oil shipments to Syria, Tohme explained.

He said the Syrian government is working to resolve this issue in cooperation with “friendly countries.” He did not disclose the countries he referred to.

Tohme said the country has resumed distributing 95 octane gasoline, adding that regular 90 octane gasoline will be boosted from Sunday to all provinces, up by 620,000 liters.

The minister said these additional quantities would gradually limit the queues at gas stations, hoping that the crisis would end completely within a few weeks with the arrival of the oil shipments to the Baniyas and Homs refineries.

In late March, the fuel crisis returned prompting long queues.

Oil supplies from Iran have stopped since mid-March after Tehran requested the bill to be paid in cash.

In a meeting with the Labor Union in Damascus last week, Prime Minister Hussein Arnous said “sanctions are a lie, and the truth is that Syria has no money to import oil, while all countries want cash, including the Iranians.”

Experts indicate that Syria’s oil reserves will soon run out, while Arnous previously revealed that there are 50 million liters of gasoline and 33 million liters of diesel.

The war in Ukraine has cast a heavy shadow on the economic situation in Syria, as Russian and Iranian supplies to the war-torn country were affected by Western and US sanctions.

Arab media reports revealed that the government called on Arab countries to allow the private sector to supply Syria with oil and wheat, circumventing the sanctions.



Weaponization of Food in Gaza Constitutes War Crime, UN Rights Office Says

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Weaponization of Food in Gaza Constitutes War Crime, UN Rights Office Says

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that the "weaponization" of food for civilians in Gaza constitutes a war crime, in its strongest remarks yet on a new model of aid distribution run by an Israeli-backed organization.

Over 410 people have been killed by gunshots or shells fired by the Israeli military while trying to reach distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since it began work in late May, UN human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters at a Geneva press briefing.

The death toll has been independently verified by his office, he added.

"Desperate, hungry people in Gaza continue to face the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risk being killed while trying to get food," he said, describing the system as "Israel's militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism".

"The weaponization of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime and, under certain circumstances, may constitute elements of other crimes under international law."

Asked whether Israel was guilty of that war crime, he said: "The legal qualification needs to be made by a court of law."

Israel rejects war crimes charges in Gaza and blames Hamas fighters for harm to civilians for operating among them, which the fighters deny.