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Truckers' Protests in Iran Grow and Win Support from Prominent Dissidents

Road transport is critical to food supply in Iran. (Via AFP)
Road transport is critical to food supply in Iran. (Via AFP)
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Truckers' Protests in Iran Grow and Win Support from Prominent Dissidents

Road transport is critical to food supply in Iran. (Via AFP)
Road transport is critical to food supply in Iran. (Via AFP)

Truck drivers in Iran blocked roads and ports Wednesday as part of their strike protesting low salaries, high insurance rates, and a possible hike in fuel prices.

The strikes, which began last Thursday in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, one of the country’s main transportation and shipping hubs, have now spread across Iran. The protests are slowly gaining steam, supported by prominent dissident voices, and could morph into more serious protests against the government.

Last week, the Iranian government announced plans to increase the price of fuel for trucks from 4 cents per liter (15.14 cents per gallon) to nearly 50 cents per liter (about $1.90 per gallon) in late June. With massive resources of oil and gas, Iran has some of the lowest fuel prices in the world. The average price for a gallon of gas in the United States on Wednesday was $3.16, according to AAA, a drivers' assistance and advisory service.

Dissident Iranians expressed their support for the truckers. Film director Jafar Panahi, who last week won the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, encouraged the truck drivers to start a nationwide strike.

“The strike is a loud cry to the government: enough is enough! Stop the massive suppression and plundering before everything is lost and nothing remains for people,” he wrote on Instagram.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who was imprisoned on charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against Iran’s government, also expressed her support for the strike on X.

Videos circulating on social media showed lines of trucks parked on the sides of major roads. Iran said the plan is intended to prevent fuel smuggling into neighboring countries. Fuel in neighboring Pakistan costs more than a dollar per liter ($4 per gallon).

Many of Iran's previous rounds of anti-government protests started out as economic protests over local issues, including demonstrations in 2017 and 2018. Those protests were met with a heavy reaction by the police and the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

In 2019, anger over the government eliminating the gasoline subsidy also sparked nation-wide protests. More than 1,000 people were arrested and the country temporarily shut down the internet. Protests also rocked the country in 2022 over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in Iranian security custody after morality police detained her for improperly wearing her headscarf.

On Saturday, Jalal Mousavi, an official in the truckers’ union, said truckers are striking because they are struggling with the rising costs of fuel, spare parts and repairs.

The strike underscores the mounting economic pressures on Iran as it struggles to secure relief from crippling sanctions in the ongoing negotiations with the United States. Iran’s oil sector, the lifeblood of its economy, has been damaged by the impact of American sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program, and it is one of the central issues under discussion in the Iran-US negotiations.

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Argentina to Put Iranians and Lebanese on Trial in Absentia over 1994 Jewish Center Bombing

People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)
People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)
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Argentina to Put Iranians and Lebanese on Trial in Absentia over 1994 Jewish Center Bombing

People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)
People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)

An Argentine judge on Thursday ordered that the seven Iranians and three Lebanese citizens accused of involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires face trial in absentia for the first time in the long-running case plagued by setbacks and controversy.

For years Argentine courts have ordered that the suspects — Iranian former officials and Lebanese nationals — be apprehended and brought before a judge because Argentina never allowed trials in absentia.

Past efforts to encourage foreign governments to arrest the suspects, including an influential advisor to Iran's supreme leader, on the basis of Interpol red alerts never gained traction.

But right-wing President Javier Milei, a loyal ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and fierce critic of Iran who studies the Torah with a rabbi despite being born Catholic, pushed a bill through Congress earlier this year that authorizes trials in absentia for fugitives that have long sought to evade justice, allowing Argentina to put the defendants on trial for the first time.

On Thursday, Judge Daniel Rafecas approved the trial in absentia following a request from the special prosecutor’s office responsible for investigating the 1994 attack, the deadliest in the South American country’s history, which killed 85 people two years after a separate bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires killed 22 people.

Rafecas described the trial as the only way to avoid impunity now more than 30 years after the bombing.

“Trial in absentia, however limited, remains a tool that allows us, at the very least, to attempt to uncover the truth, reconstruct what happened, and, above all, give those representing the victims a place to express themselves publicly in this process,” he wrote in his ruling.

Last year, a high court in Argentina ruled that the Iranian government had masterminded the 1994 attack on the center, known by its acronym AMIA, and that members of Lebanon's Iran-backed group Hezbollah had carried it out.

Iran has long denied any involvement in the attacks.

Among the seven Iranians who are subject to Argentine arrest warrants are former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, former commander of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Mohsen Rezaei and former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, who now advises Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The three Lebanese citizens include Salman Raouf Salman, who allegedly coordinated the attack, and fellow Hezbollah members Abdallah Salman and Hussein Mounir Mouzannar. All have been declared in contempt of court, in some cases decades ago.

Advancing the AMIA case has been a key goal of Milei, who concluded a trip to Jerusalem on June 12, the night before Israel launched its unprecedented air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear sites and military leadership.

Milei escalated his rhetoric against Iran and in support of Israel during the 12-day war between the regional foes, calling Iran “an enemy of Argentina” and praising Israel as “saving Western civilization.”

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