Photo shared online on April 3, 2021, shows queues of cars in front of a fuel station in Suwayda city waiting to obtain petrol for their vehicles using the smart card system launched by the Syrian government under the pretext of enabling citizens to purchase petrol in an organized and planned fashion at state-subsidized prices.
SNHR notes that fuel stations have been witnessing unprecedented queues for fuel and overcrowding of vehicles across Syria recently, especially after the Ministry of Interior issued new trade and consumer protection legislation on March 15, 2021, according to which the price of benzene of 95-octane fuel rose to 2,000 Syrian pounds per liter (approximately 56 US cents) and 90-octane fuel rose to 750 Syrian pounds per liter (approximately 21 US cents).
SNHR notes that the fuel crisis is one of the suffocating economic crises imposed on the Syrian people, resulting from the regime’s own disastrous policies in leading the Syrian state, more particularly over the last ten years.
In reality, the ruling regime will remain wholly indifferent to the suffering of the Syrian people, whatever point this reaches. The international community must reduce the duration of this suffering by accompanying the existing economic sanctions with additional deterrent measures that include putting pressure on the Syrian regime and its allies to force them to abide by United Nations resolutions, and to achieve a political transition according to a strict timetable that will not exceed six months.
