Iran protests and smuggling crushed, but public anger still simmers

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran appears to have stopped large volumes of petrol being smuggled out of the country after raising the price by 300 percent on November 15, sparking four days of violent unrest which left more than 130 dead and thousands of protesters incarcerated.

One of the main reasons President Hassan Rouhani’s government went ahead with the shock decision to raise the price of petrol was to stop the smuggling of around ten million liters of petrol per day into neighboring countries, which costs the government millions of dollars in much needed foreign currency. 

On top of the volumes smuggled, Iranian motorists consume around 95 million liters of petrol every day.

However, the fuel smuggling, which occurs predominantly in the Kurdish, Arab, and Balochi areas in the country’s west, south, and east provide vital employment opportunities for tens of thousands of locals, allowing them to earn a meager living. The ethnically diverse areas have been neglected by successive governments in Tehran on security grounds.

Rudaw English recently visited a village in the border area of Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan, to see what impact the petrol price hikes are having on the petty smuggling operations which the locals depend upon. 

“The smuggling has stopped,” one local said. 

Villagers who spoke to Rudaw English asked for their names to be withheld and for the villages they smuggle with on the Iranian side not to be identified, fearing the retribution of Iranian forces.

Thousands of protesters have been arrested. One hardliner newspaper close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei has called for the protest leaders to face the hangman’s noose.

“They are arresting everyone,” one protester told Rudaw English via WhatsApp on Sunday. He had fled the city of Mariwan in western Kurdistan province, where some of the bloodiest confrontations between protesters and security forces have taken place. 

Internet services and social media platforms were gradually reconnected on Sunday following a virtual nationwide blackout. “Everyone is fearful, I don’t think there is any evidence against me, but I don’t want to take any chances,” the protester said. 

Prior to the price hikes, 20 liters of petrol would cost 20,000 tomans ($2) at the pump on the Iranian side of the border and would sell on the Iraqi side for 95,000 tomans ($9), leaving a tidy profit for smugglers. Now the same 20 liters costs 60,000 tomans ($6) on the Iranian side, leaving smugglers with a meager 7,000 toman (70 cents) in profit.

“The petrol price hike has not reduced the consumption of fuel,” Sayyid Kamal Hadianfar, head of Iran’s Traffic Police, said on Monday. “Until two days ago the consumption of petrol recorded was 105 million liters per day, while under normal circumstances it is around 94 million liters.” 

“For the time being there is no smuggling across the border because there is no profit,” one 35-year-old petty smuggler told Rudaw English via WhatsApp from the Iranian side of the border. “We don’t know what else to do now because there is no other work.”

In one single village on the Iranian side, there are several dozen jobless men. “Everyone hopes something else will come along to make a living,” the smuggler said.

In the Baloch areas of the country’s southeast, which are among the nation’s poorest, one top religious leader urged authorities to reconsider the price hikes, as economic pressures are being compounded upon the lower classes. 

“The experts who suggested the current price to the officials did not research the issue properly and in its totality,” Mawlana Abdul Hamid said during his Friday sermon. “The people of Iran are facing the oppressive sanctions and bad conditions in the job market and living conditions… I urge the reconsideration of the decision to raise the price of petrol as it is the request of the public too.” 

With the smuggling stopped there are now tens of thousands of young men across the Kurdish, Arab, and Balochi areas out of work with no other source of income, creating a security headache for the authorities. 

The central government often accuses the people in these diverse ethnic areas of separatism, which has given security forces carte blanche authority to use lethal force with impunity. Most of those killed or wounded in last week’s protest came from the Kurdish and Arab areas. 

“Jihad Square in Mariwan looked like Fallujah,” one resident of Mariwan city told Rudaw English, referring to the Iraqi city of Fallujah which saw devastating street battles in 2004. 

“In every corner there are hundreds of Sepah [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and members of the intelligence services.”

“I attended one of the funerals in Mariwan and there were many guards outside the mosque and filming the few people who attended the funeral,” the resident said. Authorities have ordered the relatives of those killed in the protests not to hold large funerals. 

“Now the authorities are asking for 30 million tomans ($3,000) from families whose loved ones have been arrested during and after the protests. They say it is for the damage caused to the infrastructure during the protests.”

Residents from the Kurdish areas in western Iran who travelled to the Kurdistan Region over the weekend described a climate of fear in the Kurdish areas where hundreds of people have been arrested.

“Last big protest was about votes but this time it is about hunger,” said one 45-year-old Kurdish housewife, referring to the 2009 protests about the rigged presidential elections. “One kilo of tomatoes used to be 800 tomans a month ago, but now it is 10,000 tomans.”

“You have a pharaoh ruling the country,” said the housewife. “They think the anger of people is over, but this is just the beginning.”

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