from Tehran Times
Demonstrations flared from Aleppo and Idlib to Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the regime of Ahmad "al-Jolani" al-Sharra announced an abrupt 40 percent price hike on diesel, along with steep increases on gasoline and cooking gas.
Protesters burned tires, blocked the strategic M5 highway linking Damascus to Aleppo, and intercepted crude oil tankers moving through eastern provinces.
Angry crowds demanded the immediate dismissal of Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir.
The ruling clique in Damascus cited global market volatility and maintenance at the Baniyas refinery. That explanation offered no comfort to a population enduring systemic collapse.
A cascading collapse of basic survival
Fuel represents only the newest burden on an exhausted population.
Across major cities and rural towns, everyday survival has become nearly impossible.
Bread prices have soared following the government's move to dismantle state wheat subsidies.
A standard bundle of bread now costs up to 15,000 Syrian pounds in regions like Hasakah, representing a massive surge since late 2024.
Electricity infrastructure has fared no better. The government recently shifted generator pricing to dollarized rates, prompting private operators to shut down units.
Some neighborhoods now sit in total darkness for up to 21 hours a day. Healthcare services have undergone aggressive and predatory privatization, locking impoverished families out of basic care.
More than 90 percent of Syrians live under the poverty line, facing a daily battle against hyperinflation.
In May and June alone, over 200 demonstrations hit agricultural regions, where farmers protested unpaid wheat harvests and rising input costs.
The recent fuel shock simply pushed public tolerance past its breaking point.
Empty Western pledges and the Visa card elite
During the transition of power in Damascus, Western powers promised rapid economic integration, foreign investment, sanctions relief, and removal from international blacklists.
Washington and its allies presented these measures as a framework for national recovery. Almost two years later, none of these commitments have reached ordinary citizens.
Instead, economic privileges remain concentrated among the new ruling class.
While ordinary Syrians queue for hours to purchase single loaves of bread, al-Jolani wears tailored suits, pays for his coffee with an American Visa card, and publicly thanks Washington for easing sanctions.
Now as the picture of Syria’s new path has become increasingly clear, many have concluded that Washington’s strategy was never designed to rebuild Syria or improve living conditions.
The primary objective appears to be geopolitical dominance over opponents of the U.S.-Israeli order and control over Mount Hermon.
U.S. forces remain entrenched near primary oil installations in eastern Syria, extracting up to 66,000 barrels per day.
Syrian resources flow outward to sustain foreign military outposts, while local refineries run dry and domestic consumers face artificially inflated prices.
Capitulation to Israel
Security conditions across the country reflect total fragmentation.
The al-Jolani regime has abandoned national sovereignty in exchange for foreign backing.
In the south, Israel maintains military control over Jabal al-Shaykh (Mount Hermon) and has fortified an expanded security zone stretching toward Yarmouk River.
Tel Aviv regularly conducts hostile military patrols and exercises within Syrian territory without meeting any official resistance from Damascus.
Top Israeli officials recently visited troops occupying Mount Hermon, delivering clear warnings just 35 kilometers from the capital.
It appears that the regime in Damascus has quietly agreed to keep southern border areas disarmed and defenseless, effectively transforming Syrian soil into a passive and humiliating buffer zone for Israel.
The illusion of liberation
The "constitutional framework" enacted by al-Jolani granted his office broad judicial and legislative authority without institutional oversight.
Minorities and tribal groups in the east face systematic exclusion from local governance and resource distribution.
Reconciliation pledges made to civil servants remain unfulfilled, while figures linked to previous corruption scandals operate freely under new political banners.
Public anger goes beyond isolated economic grievances.
Demonstrators in Khan Sheikhoun, Maarat al-Numan, and Raqqa have raised fundamental questions about national independence.
The accumulated evidence suggests that swapping one political structure for a Western-aligned regime brings neither stability nor self-determination.
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