Iran arrests some striking truckers as protest reaches fifth day

Authorities have arrested several striking truck drivers in the southern city of Shiraz, according to the provincial prosecutor, as a nationwide truckers’ strike entered its fifth day on Monday.

“Those who have blocked the movement of freight trucks have been identified and arrested under the supervision of security and law enforcement agencies,” Kamran Mirhaji, the prosecutor of Fars province said on Monday.

“Those who obstruct the delivery of goods and cargo by trucks will be dealt with seriously according to the law,” he said, according to Iran's semi-official Mehr news.

Launched on May 18 in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, the coordinated protest has since spread widely across the country, with truckers pledging to hold out for a full week or longer if their demands remain unmet.

Drivers are demanding better working conditions, higher freight rates, and relief from high insurance costs and fuel restrictions.

The arrests come as videos obtained by Iran International on Monday show the strike entering its fifth day and continuing across multiple regions of the country, including Fars province, where the detentions took place.

A citizen who sent a video to Iran International on Monday described the Shiraz–Marvdasht road in southern Iran as completely deserted, saying, “There is not a single truck in sight.” The road connects Shiraz, a major commercial hub, to Marvdasht in Fars province and is normally a busy route for freight transport.

Other footage shows heavy vehicle drivers refusing to transport goods in cities such as Shahrud in north-central Iran, Torbat-e Jam in the northeast, and Meybod in central Iran.

The Truckers and Drivers’ Union on Sunday said drivers in over 100 cities have now joined the coordinated action.

In a statement on Monday, Reza Akbari, head of Iran’s Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization, downplayed the scope of the strike and blamed the unrest on foreign interference. “A limited number of drivers are trying to create unrest, and these actions are the result of incitement by hostile foreign media that seek to portray the country’s roads as unsafe,” he said.

Akbari said independent Persian-language media based abroad were inflating the scale of the protests and that some domestic outlets were inadvertently amplifying what he described as false narratives. He added that “truck drivers have been very cooperative in efforts to resolve the existing issues.”