We've been watching the economic fall happening in Iran, and they just hit another number that showed how bad things are getting.
The Iranian rial fell to another record low, to roughly 2.3 million per U.S. dollar, as the military action and the naval blockade continue to squeeze them and stop the regime's ability to ship fuel and other goods in and out of the country.
Fuel shortages and rising prices are hitting commercial drivers hard, and it's having a dangerous result for the regime. Gas prices in Tehran were doubled for those who go over 110 liters a month, as subsidies were cut.
The shortages have hit taxi, delivery and truck drivers particularly hard. About 120 taxi drivers in Kerman said fuel cuts were leaving them unable to work for roughly a third of each month, while drivers for Iranian ride-share and delivery giant Snapp have staged strikes in multiple cities, the report said.
“We’ve all stopped; no one is working,” one driver said in footage verified by Storyful.Truckers near the Iraqi border have also gone on strike, while drivers in Bandar Abbas have warned they could follow.
“The issue is that we can no longer bear these pressures,” truckers at the port said in a statement, according to the report.
The drivers striking in the face of possible severe punishment from the government are pretty courageous; it indicates how desperate the situation is getting. It was this kind of anger that led to the people rising up in January. This tends to lead to more such action, and can snowball quickly.
So signs like these strikes have to make the regime very worried about what will come next.