DUBAI, (Reuters) – A cyberattack prevented Iran from selling heavily subsidised gasoline to Iran on Tuesday. State media reports that the incident led to long lines at petrol stations throughout the country, weeks ahead of protests in 2019 following fuel price increases.

Iran claims it is alerted for cyberattacks. It has previously blamed Israel and the United States. In the meantime, America and other Western countries have charged Iran with trying to break into and disrupt their networks.

State broadcaster IRIB stated that the cyberattack caused disruptions at gas station refuelling systems over the last few hours. The problem is being fixed by technical experts and the normal refuelling procedure will soon resume.

According to the news agency SHANA, only smart card sales were affected by lower rationed gasoline prices. Clients could continue buying fuel at higher prices.

The disturbances took place before November 2019, the second anniversary of an increase of fuel prices. These protests led to large-scale street demonstrations, in which many were killed by security forces.

Social media posts showed street signs with messages like “Khamenei where is our gasoline?”The message was a reference at Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Ali Khamenei.

Reuters was unable to independently authenticate these videos. However, Iran’s Mehr news agency semi-official confirmed the existence of some signs.

Iran was previously the victim of several cyberattacks, such as the one that took down the website for the Transport Ministry’s transport ministry in July. State media claimed it was due to a “cyber disturbance”.