عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Syria Steps up Fuel Rationing as Shortages Hit Mobile Network 

People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)
People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)
TT
20
TT

Syria Steps up Fuel Rationing as Shortages Hit Mobile Network 

People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)
People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)

Syria announced cuts on Tuesday to the amount of fuel it provides to government workers to help cope with shortages that have led a number of mobile phone towers to go offline. 

Prime Minister Hussein Arnous ordered a 40% reduction in the amount of fuel provided to government workers and restrictions on official travel for non-urgent purposes, according to a statement. 

Public transport was exempted, said the statement, which blamed shortages on delays in shipments and US sanctions. 

Subsidized fuel is already hard to come by in Syria, with people often waiting weeks for notifications to receive less than a full tank of gas. Those who can buy non-subsidized fuel must brave long queues at petrol pumps. 

Fractured by a more than decade of conflict that has frozen on most fronts, Syria's economic crisis is exacting an increasingly heavy toll that the United Nations says has left more people than ever in need of humanitarian aid. 

The once-productive Syrian economy, already hit by extensive damage to infrastructure and industries during the war, has plunged further since 2019, when contagion from neighboring Lebanon's financial crisis led the Syrian pound to collapse. 

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

Hezbollah Says it Won't Hand Over Weapons While Israeli Troops Remain in Southern Lebanon

(FILES) Mourners attend the funeral of slain Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium on the outskirts of Beirut on February 23, 2025. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)
(FILES) Mourners attend the funeral of slain Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium on the outskirts of Beirut on February 23, 2025. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)
TT
20
TT

Hezbollah Says it Won't Hand Over Weapons While Israeli Troops Remain in Southern Lebanon

(FILES) Mourners attend the funeral of slain Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium on the outskirts of Beirut on February 23, 2025. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)
(FILES) Mourners attend the funeral of slain Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium on the outskirts of Beirut on February 23, 2025. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)

The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said on Friday that its fighters will not disarm as long as Israeli troops remain in southern Lebanon and the Israeli air force regularly violates Lebanese air space.
Naim Kassem addressed supporters in a speech broadcast on Hezbollah’s television station. Kassem took over Hezbollah after Israeli airstrikes killed longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, his successor Hashem Safieddine and other top Hezbollah figures last year, decimating the group's leadership, The Associated Press said.
Kassem said Hezbollah had implemented its commitments related to the US-brokered ceasefire that halted the fighting in Hezbollah’s latest, 14-month war with Israel.
Since the ceasefire went into effect in late November, Israeli airstrikes have killed scores of people in Lebanon including civilians and Hezbollah members. Israel says it’s targeting Hezbollah holdouts in southern Lebanon.
On Tuesday, the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights said that at least 71 civilians, including 14 women and nine children, have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect.
Hezbollah launched its own attacks on Israel a day after the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023 with the Palestinian Hamas’ attack on southern Israel, saying it was doing so to ease the pressure on Gaza by keeping part of the Israeli military busy along the northern Israeli border with Lebanon.
In response, Israeli troops pushed into Lebanon. The 14 months of the Hezbollah-Israel war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and caused destruction that will take $11 billion to rebuild, according to the World Bank.
As part of the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to pull out from parts of southern Lebanon and give up its military positions and weapons south of the Litani River while Israeli forces were to pull back into Israel. The Lebanese army was to take over Hezbollah's positions and guarantee security in the south, along with the UN peacekeeping mission.
Israel withdrew much of its troops from southern Lebanon in February but kept five posts inside Lebanese territory in what Lebanon says is a violation of the ceasefire deal.
Last week, deputy US Special Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus visited Beirut and called on the Lebanese state to assert its control all over Lebanon — and not only in the south along the border with Israel south of the Litani River.
“We will not allow anyone to remove Hezbollah’s weapons,” Kassem said. “These weapons gave life and freedom to our people."
Kassem spoke hours after two separate Israeli drones killed two people in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said it killed two Hezbollah members in the strikes.
“Does anyone expect us to discuss a national defense strategy as warplanes fly over our heads and there is occupation in south Lebanon,” Kassem asked. “These are not discussions. This is surrender. Let Israel withdraw first and stop its flights in the air.”