Syria fuel price hikes trigger broadest protests since Assad fall as economic pressure tests Sharaa government
By SCN News Desk
ALEPPO, Syria, Sept. 14, 2026: A sharp increase in fuel prices has triggered protests across Syria, producing the country's most widespread demonstrations since Bashar al-Assad was toppled nearly two years ago and confronting President Ahmed al-Sharaa's government with a significant test of public patience over the pace and cost of economic recovery. Protesters burned tyres and blocked major roads, including routes around Aleppo and sections of the highway linking Damascus with the country's northern industrial centres.
The unrest followed a government decision to raise diesel prices by about 40% to 175 Syrian pounds a litre, while 95-octane gasoline rose 28% to 195 pounds and 90-octane gasoline increased 26% to 185 pounds. Household and industrial gas prices also rose by around 9%. The increases are particularly painful in a country where the UN Development Programme estimates roughly 90% of the population lives below the poverty line, compared with about one-third before the conflict that began in 2011.
Demonstrations spread beyond a single city or political constituency. Protests were reported around Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa, Hassakeh, Hama, Khan Sheikhoun and Maarat al-Numan, while demonstrators blocked roads and, in some areas, crude-oil tanker convoys heading toward refineries in central Syria. Some protesters demanded the removal of Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir and other senior economic and petroleum officials.
The grievances centre on more than the price displayed at fuel stations. Diesel powers transportation, agricultural machinery, generators and heating, meaning higher prices can rapidly feed into fares and the cost of food and other goods. Transport operators in Homs raised passenger fares within hours of the increase, while protesters interviewed in Aleppo said households were already struggling with basic living expenses.
The government says the increase is temporary rather than a permanent change in pricing policy. Syria's Energy Ministry blamed a combination of surging international refined-fuel prices, higher transport and insurance costs, disruptions affecting shipping through Hormuz and the Red Sea region, and a major overhaul at the Baniyas refinery that has temporarily increased the country's reliance on imported petroleum products.
Those vulnerabilities are substantial. The ministry says Syria needs around 300,000 barrels per day of crude and petroleum products while domestic crude production is roughly 100,000 bpd. About 60% of daily diesel supplies are imported, leaving domestic prices highly exposed to international supply disruptions. Baniyas, Syria's largest refinery, is undergoing its first comprehensive maintenance operation in years, further tightening supplies while the country tries to rebuild its energy infrastructure.
The global energy shock has amplified that pressure. Reuters reported that Syria has relied heavily on Russian crude, importing around 60,000 barrels per day this year, but Russian refined-product supplies have come under pressure as Ukrainian attacks damaged refining capacity and Moscow restricted some fuel exports. Since February, Syria's 95-octane gasoline price has risen roughly 86%, while diesel has more than doubled, compared with an approximately 44% increase in benchmark Brent crude over the same period.
The protests now create a broader political and economic challenge for Sharaa's government. His administration inherited an economy devastated by years of war, sanctions, damaged infrastructure and institutional corruption, while simultaneously facing public expectations for rapid improvements after Assad's removal. Syria's newly formed People's Assembly is expected to hold a listening session with the energy minister on Thursday over the reasons for the increases, according to Syrian state media cited by the Financial Times.
For Damascus, reversing the increases could deepen the financial burden of securing imported fuel, while maintaining them risks spreading public anger as transportation and commodity prices adjust. That tension makes the demonstrations more consequential than another dispute over pump prices: they are an early nationwide test of whether Syria's post-Assad government can pursue painful economic reforms without exhausting the public goodwill on which the country's fragile transition partly depends.