Iran trucker protests erupt as Trump negotiates with ayatollahs over nukes

Price increases on diesel have prompted widespread trucker protests in Iran as the country continues to suffer from sanctions imposed by the United States.

The strikes come at a particularly challenging time for the Iranian ayatollahs as they seek to negotiate a new nuclear deal with the Trump administration to replace the deal they previously broke under Obama. 

The strikes started as a local protest in the southern city of Bandar Abbas a week ago but have rolled out nationwide, the Associated Press reported.

As the challenge to the government spread, it also picked up the support of Iranian dissidents.

Film director Jafar Panahi, who won the Palme d’Or award last week at the Cannes Film Festival, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi have expressed their support for the protests.

Videos shared on social media show empty highways, truckers pulled to the side of the road, and truckers bucking the strike needing armed government escorts to continue driving safely. 

Protests have reached 93 cities across 27 provinces as of Sunday, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a dissident group. 

The group also noted placards bearing the slogan “Neither Shah, Nor Mullah,” emphasizing the country doesn’t want to be governed by a monarchy or Islamist clerics. 

The economic protest is quickly turning political with one driver saying, “Only in a popular republic can we get our rights,” according to the group. 

In addition to higher fuel prices, truckers are protesting the gross mismanagement of the economy, which has led to high inflation, shortages and a general deterioration of living standards. 

Even before the proposed fuel price hikes, truckers were barely breaking even because of increased insurance costs, spare parts and tires, truckers’ union drivers argued. 

“We carry cargo, pay taxes, tolls, and fines, and now our insurance costs have multiplied,” said one driver in a video, according to IranWire. “How many lives do we have? We are no longer living – we are burning.” 

Truckers have the right to strike under Iranian law, the truckers’ union told IranWire. 

“A driver who protests for his bread and dignity is not a rioter. Protest is not a crime, but our legal right,” the union said. 

Multiple media outlets, however, are reporting government agents have attacked protesters.  

Outside critics familiar with Iran are pressing the Trump administration to support the public anger there, hoping the country’s revolutionary Islamic regime will collapse.   

“The Trump administration should offer loud support to the truckers – this would give Trump even more leverage in the nuclear negotiations,” Alireza Nader, a policy analyst on Iran with the Rand Corporation, told Fox News. 

The strike could spread to other industries in the energy sector and other transport sectors, making the protest more effective, according to Nader.  

Meanwhile, bakers in several cities have joined the protests since May 17 – partly in solidarity with the truckers, but also because of electricity shortages, IranWire said. 

“Usually, the electricity goes out at 6 or 7 in the morning and doesn’t return until 8 or 9,” a civil activist explained to IranWire. “Many bakers used to work overnight to prepare for the morning bake, but they can’t anymore because the union now prohibits it and imposes fines.” 

Protests over poor economic management by Iran’s Islamic regime have previously occurred in 2017-2018, 2019-2020 and 2022. 

“The latest nationwide truckers’ strike is not an isolated incident – it is only the latest manifestation of deep disenchantment among Iranians who are denied dignity and proper rights in every industry,” Lisa Daftari, an Iran expert and editor at the Foreign Desk, told Fox News.   

The Iranian regime has shown itself “incapable of reform or of delivering the life Iranians deserve,” Daftari argued.  

While the Trump administration has remained quiet over recent protests, in 2018 Trump supported protesters’ calls for a change in government.  

“Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration,” Trump wrote. “The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!” 

However, Trump recently extended an olive branch to Iran in the form of new nuclear negotiations, offering to lift sanctions on the beleaguered regime in return for its giving up nuclear ambitions. 

As the Middle East changes almost monthly, with Turkey now influencing the former Russian client state of Syria after its Baathist regime collapsed at the first of the year, it’s unclear how the prospect of regime change in Tehran would be treated by the current White House.  

Recently, the Trump administration warned Israel not to take military action against Iran to avoid upsetting U.S. nuclear talks, according to the Times of Israel.