Iran’s internet blackout has entered its 77th day, passing 1,824 hours of digital isolation, internet monitor NetBlocks said.
NetBlocks warned that the shutdown presents an emerging mental health risk to the public, with many Iranians largely cut off from online platforms, communications and normal interaction with the outside world.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi accused the United Arab Emirates of helping and facilitating military attacks against Iran, saying Abu Dhabi had “betrayed” Tehran during the war.
Speaking at the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi, Gharibabadi rejected what he called “baseless claims” by the UAE foreign minister that Iran had attacked the country and was the aggressor.
“The United Arab Emirates played a significant role in supporting and facilitating military aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Gharibabadi said, according to ISNA.
He said that under a 1974 UN General Assembly resolution, countries that provide facilities and services to aggressors are not merely helping them but are committing aggression themselves.
“The UAE is an aggressor, not a helper of aggressors,” he said.
Gharibabadi said Iran had warned regional countries, including the UAE, before the attacks began that if they helped the United States and Israel or made their territory and facilities available, Tehran would exercise what he called its right to self-defense.
“We had no choice but to attack all the facilities of US bases in the UAE, or any facilities and installations in the UAE in which the United States has a share or participation,” he said. “This was a war, and in that war we defended our country.”
He said Iran had no war with its neighbors and had told regional states that its war was with Israel and the United States, “not with neighbors and not with the United Arab Emirates.”
Gharibabadi said the UAE was trying to portray itself as a victim, while “the real victim is the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
He added that the UAE had “not only betrayed the Islamic Republic of Iran as a neighboring country, but is also betraying the Palestinian cause,” accusing Abu Dhabi of inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the war and acting as “the representative and protector of Israel’s interests” at BRICS and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
The accounts describe growing frustration over restricted access to subsidized gasoline and arbitrary limits imposed by operators, leaving many motorists dependent on costly unofficial sales.
“One day there’s quota left on your card, the next day it says your quota is finished,” one citizen said. “They even steal the few drops of gasoline they give people.”
Iran uses a subsidized fuel quota system controlled through electronic fuel cards. Every private vehicle receives a monthly gasoline allocation at discounted prices, while extra consumption is charged at higher rates.
Under Iran’s latest pricing system introduced in late 2025, the first 60 liters of gasoline each month cost 15,000 rials per liter (about $0.008), the next 100 liters cost 30,000 rials ($0.017), and any amount above 160 liters costs 50,000 rials ($0.028).
Despite heavy fuel subsidies, Iran’s minimum monthly wage is now worth less than $90 because of inflation and the sharp decline of the rial.
Another driver said he could not use his personal fuel card on Wednesday because his monthly allocation had already run out. The station operator, he said, agreed to provide a fuel card only if payment was handed directly to him, and even then limited sales to 15 liters at 70,000 rials ($0.038) per liter.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said in late April that the country faced “some shortages” in sectors including energy and fuel.
On May 9, Esmail Saghab Esfahani, vice president and head of Iran’s Strategic Energy Policy and Management Organization, said damage during the war had affected parts of the country’s gas and fuel infrastructure and disrupted some gasoline production capacity.
He said Iran had “no choice but to conserve” fuel consumption for at least the next 18 to 24 months.
But Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said on April 29 there were no concerns over fuel supply or distribution.
Black market prices rise
A resident of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran said drivers often wait more than an hour at gas stations, even with personal fuel cards, while gasoline is “widely available” on the black market at 150,000 rials, about $0.08, per liter.
In Zahedan, in southeastern Iran, one resident said gasoline shortages and tighter controls had accelerated illegal fuel sales.
“Everything has been left without oversight,” the resident said. “Sometimes 20 liters of gasoline is sold on the street for 10 million rials ($5.5).”
One driver from Isfahan said operators demanded between 1 million rials ($0.55) and 4 million rials ($2.22) to provide access to only 15 liters.
Citizens also described growing congestion at gas stations nationwide, with drivers saying some stations on major routes had limited purchases to 15 liters.
A resident of Sistan and Baluchestan said 70 liters of gasoline now costs around 50 million rials, about $28, while many villagers must drive hundreds of kilometers to reach hospitals or provincial centers.
For many Iranians, the shortages have become less a matter of conservation than another daily pressure in an increasingly strained economy.
