Tehran urges Americans to stockpile fuel ahead of ‘dark months’
Shafaq News- Tehran
Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref warned on Thursday of “dark months” for the US economy, calling on Americans to stockpile gasoline and fuel amid the ongoing military escalation between Tehran and Washington.
Aref added that the latest US attacks had changed Iran's “security calculations and defense doctrine,” affirming that his country's response would be “asymmetric,” “multilayered,” and would “deprive the aggressor of security.”
جنایات جدید آمریکا علیه ملت ایران، معادلات امنیتی و دکترین دفاعی ما را تغییر داد. از این پس پاسخ ما «نامتوازن»، «چندلایه »و «سلبکننده امنیت متجاوز» خواهد بود. آمریکاییها باید به فکر ذخیره بنزین و سوخت باشند؛ ماههای سیاهی در انتظار اقتصاد آمریکاست.
— محمدرضا عارف (@ir_aref) September 3, 2026
The latest US attacks on Iran killed at least 18 people and wounded 108, according to Iran's health ministry, including four killed and 67 wounded, many of them children, when a wedding ceremony near the coast of the Strait of Hormuz was hit. Iran retaliated by targeting US military sites across the Middle East.
The war, which started in late February, has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most critical maritime chokepoints, which normally carries around a quarter of global seaborne oil trade as well as significant volumes of liquefied natural gas and fertilizers.
The resulting disruption to global oil supplies has pushed US gasoline prices above $4 a gallon and prompted Washington to draw heavily on its Strategic Petroleum Reserve. About 128 million barrels have been released since the war began, according to US Energy Information Administration data, with the stockpile falling by more than three million barrels in the week ending Aug. 28 to 286.6 million barrels (about 40% of overall capacity), its lowest level since 1982.
