Hezbollah says Iranian fuel oil shipment for Lebanon to depart soon
Beirut, Aug 19 (EFE).- A ship carrying Iranian fuel oil will set sail to Lebanon within hours, the Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah announced Thursday.
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Shiite political and militia organization, said that this would be the first in a series of Hezbollah-organized shipments designed to ease the Arab country’s worsening oil shortage.
“Our first ship leaving from Iran has completed all arrangements and will sail in a matter of hours. It will be followed by other ships,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking the Muslim holy day of Ashura.
He added that the first ship will be carrying diesel, which is necessary to keep electrical generators running in a country suffering from hours-long blackouts every day.
Last week, the Lebanese central bank announced that it will no longer subsidize fuel imports.
The oil shipment will violate sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States since 2018.
Nasrallah, however, told the US and Israel that the vessel becomes Lebanese territory as soon as it sails, in a warning about the consequences of a possible attack on the ship while it is on its way to Lebanon.
Lebanon is grappling a political deadlock as well as its worst economic crisis since its years-long civil war ended in 1990.EFE
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