Iran supplies Syria regime with 3m barrels of oil

Iran has supplied the Syrian regime with 3 million barrels of oil to address the worsening fuel crisis in the regime-controlled areas of Syria, Anadolu Agency reported.

According to naval tracking firm TankerTrackers, the tankers Arman 114, Sam 121, Daran and Romina were tracked around the southern part of the Red Sea heading towards Syria.

The first tanker carrying 900,000 barrels of oil has been discharged to the Baniyas refinery in Syria on 8 April.

It is estimated that two of these tankers carrying a total of 1.9 million barrels of oil have already arrived at the Baniyas oil refinery. The other two ships, which were present in the Suez Canal between 8-9 April, are currently untraceable due to the shutdown of their tracking systems.

On 4 July, 2019, the Arman 114 ship was detained in Gibraltar for transporting oil to Syria in violation of European Union (EU) sanctions.

It is estimated that the shipments may contribute to meeting Syria’s needs for oil for a period of three weeks.

The fuel crisis in Syria has worsened, especially after the Kurdistan Workers’ Party stopped selling oil to the Assad regime 25 days ago, due to its inability to settle accumulated debts.

The Syrian government has linked the fuel crisis to the Ever Given ship incident in the Suez Canal.

The fuel crisis brought transportation and social life to a halt, especially in the crowded cities of Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus.

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