Iran is smuggling at least 6 million liters of fuel each day to neighboring Pakistan, traders and transporters in the South Asian country told RFE/RL, in violation of US sanctions on the Islamic republic.Fuel trafficking is a lifeline for cash-strapped Iran, which is under a US naval blockade that has disrupted its lucrative oil exports. Weeks of US-Israeli bombing has also left the Middle Eastern country’s key infrastructure and industries in tatters.Iran has smuggled gasoline and diesel to Pakistan since around 2013, when the United States significantly tightened economic sanctions against Tehran. But there are signs that the volume of fuel that Iran is trafficking has increased since the war began on February 28.In response to the US-Israeli bombing campaign, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for global oil supplies, triggering a surge in world fuel prices and upending the global economy.Pakistan, a US ally, could come under pressure to clamp down on the smuggling of Iranian oil, experts say. Islamabad has acted as a mediator in negotiations between Washington and Tehran to end the war.
Smuggling RoutesIranian fuel is transported to the nearly a dozen crossings along the porous 900-kilometer-long border with Pakistan. The gasoline and diesel are then loaded on to hundreds of pickup trucks and even motorcycles in cannisters before they are transported across Pakistan’s vast and impoverished province of Balochistan and beyond.Akbar Notezai, a journalist in Balochistan, said each cannister can carry around 60 liters of fuel. A pickup truck can transport up to 30 cannisters, or 1,800 liters, he said. Motorcycles can each carry several fuel cannisters.Iranian fuel is also smuggled by sea in boats to Pakistan’s Gwadar port, according to experts. It is unclear how the US naval blockade of Iran has affected the maritime trafficking.
