Five underwater pipelines off Syria’s coast were sabotaged on 22-23 June. No group claimed responsibility for this ‘terrorist attack’. Syria has been beset by fuel shortages since the EU, UN and US imposed sanctions and asset freezes on certain individuals in response to atrocities carried out by the regime. Since April, private car owners have had to queue at petrol stations after being restricted to twenty litres of fuel every five days. Iran was supplying 1 to 3 million barrels a month, but after Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal the US has tightened energy sanctions to push Iran’s crude exports to zero. However, tanker-tracking firms believe Iran delivered a million barrels of crude oil recently.