Government blames problem on Western sanctions impacting import of petroleum products Addressing Syria’s fuel shortages is the aim of new measures adopted by Damascus on Sunday. President Bashar al-Assad’s government has blamed the shortages on strict Western sanctions on the war-torn country. The government is seeking to “regulate the distribution at [stations” and to ensure even deliveries across to country while “preventing waste and smuggling,” the official SANA news agency reported. The regime has faced a barrage of international sanctions since the conflict began in 2011, including measures impacting the import of petroleum-related products. Among the new measures agreed Sunday, the government said it would halve the amount of fuel allocated to public institutions to run their vehicles, set up mobile distribution points and re-open closed stations, SANA said. The Ministry of Petrol and Mineral Resources in April temporarily cut the daily cap on subsidized gasoline by half, from […]