As economic and financial pressure on the Iranian regime intensifies, Iranian regime president Masoud Pezeshkian has once again laid the groundwork for higher fuel prices by highlighting the wide gap between gasoline purchase and sale prices. Meanwhile, the suspension of the UAE’s financial and commercial transactions with Iran has heightened concerns that the Iranian regime’s assets and Iranian banks’ funds in the country could be blocked.
Speaking on Friday, August 21, Pezeshkian said about gasoline prices: “Who said the government should buy gasoline for 1.3 million rials and then sell it for 15,000 rials?” He claimed that continuing this situation would reduce the government’s ability to cover costs such as food voucher programs, payments owed to wheat farmers, insurance, and the livelihoods of workers, retirees, and government employees.
Iran’s Regime Plans Fuel Rationing, Higher Gasoline Prices Within Next 15 Days
These remarks come as Pezeshkian’s government is pursuing the so-called “fourth gasoline quota” plan at market prices, a proposal that has faced opposition even within the regime. On August 17, Iranian regime parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said raising gasoline prices was not “a calculated measure.”
At the same time, Yaser Mirzaei, deputy head of the Energy Optimization Organization, reported restrictions on gasoline imports and significant withdrawals from fuel reserves this year, warning about the continuation of this trend. As a result, the gasoline shortage crisis has once again become a tool for justifying price increases and shifting the costs of the regime’s economic mismanagement onto the public.
The UAE’s financial pressure on the Iranian regime
Ali Shariati, a member of the regime’s Chamber of Commerce, warned about the consequences of the UAE’s recent decision to halt commercial and financial transactions with Iran. He said that if Iranian assets, intermediary companies, or Iranian banks in the UAE were blocked, the amount involved “could be a very large figure.”
The UAE announced last Wednesday that it was suspending trade, commercial exchanges, and financial transactions with Iran until further notice. The decision came after Abu Dhabi accused the Iranian regime of firing two ballistic missiles toward passing ships, an allegation the Iranian regime has denied.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Dubai banks have long held substantial Iran-related deposits, and that a significant portion of those funds has effectively been unable to be transferred because of U.S. sanctions.
So far, UAE officials have not announced any order to seize or freeze the assets of Iran, Iranian banks, or Iranian citizens. Nevertheless, the convergence of the fuel crisis, the possibility of higher gasoline prices, trade restrictions, and the risk of blocked financial resources presents a more concentrated picture of the economic pressure facing the Iranian regime. Alongside Washington’s plan to intensify sanctions, these pressures further expose the costs of the regime’s economic crisis and regional policies.
