BEIRUT: The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Friday a third vessel of Iranian fuel was agreed to ease crippling shortages in the country.
“We have agreed to start loading a third vessel,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
“The coming days will prove those doubtful about the shipments arriving with fuel wrong ... and our words will be clear when the first vessel reaches Lebanon.”
On Sunday Nasrallah had said the first vessel carrying Iranian fuel for Lebanon had already departed.
Hezbollah’s foes in Lebanon have warned of dire consequences from the purchase, saying it risked sanctions being imposed on a country whose economy has been in meltdown for nearly two years.
Prime Minister-desginate Najib Mikati said earlier on Friday in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Hadath television he was against anything that would harm Lebanon’s interests but also asked critics of the Iranian fuel deals to provide help so that the country would not have to resort to them.
Nasrallah blamed the country’s economic crisis on what he called an economic siege by the United States adding that so-called Caesar sanctions imposed by Washington on Syria had harmed Lebanon.
“Go ahead and give Lebanon an exemption for Iranian gasoline and diesel ... go ahead and give Lebanon an exemption from Caesar,” Nasrallah said, addressing the United States in his speech.
Lebanon’s worsening fuel shortages reached a crunch point this month threatening to bring daily life to a halt.
Nasrallah also urged top politicians to stop debating names for the new Cabinet and urgently form a government.
“It is high time this debate now ends,” he said.
Lebanon has been run by the caretaker government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, who resigned with his Cabinet after a massive Beirut port blast ripped through the capital a year ago.
Mikati is the third prime minister-desginate since then to attempt to form a government with President Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah agrees to third shipment of Iranian fuel
https://arab.news/gn5uq
Lebanon’s Hezbollah agrees to third shipment of Iranian fuel
- "We have agreed to start loading a third vessel," Nasrallah said in a televised speech
- Hezbollah's foes in Lebanon have warned of dire consequences from the purchase
Lebanon condemns deadly Israeli strikes on south and east
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s president on Saturday condemned deadly Israeli attacks on his country carried out a day prior, the latest despite a ceasefire with militant group Hezbollah.
In a statement, Joseph Aoun called the attacks “a blatant act of aggression aimed at thwarting diplomatic efforts” by the United States and other nations to establish stability.
A lawmaker from Hezbollah called on Beirut to suspend meetings of a multinational committee tasked with monitoring the truce.
Washington is one of five members on the committee overseeing the ceasefire implemented in November 2024, with the body scheduled to meet again next week.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite the ceasefire, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah but occasionally also the group’s Palestinian ally Hamas.
The Friday attacks on southern and eastern Lebanon killed 12 people, according to the health ministry, 10 of them in the east of the country.
Israel’s military said it struck “several terrorists of Hezbollah’s missile array in three different command centers in the Baalbek area.”
Hezbollah said a commander was killed in the raids. Its lawmaker Rami Abu Hamdan said on Saturday the group “will not accept the authorities acting as mere political analysts, dismissing these as Israeli strikes we have grown accustomed to before every meeting of the committee.”
He called on Beirut to “suspend the committee’s meetings until the enemy ceases its attacks.”
Hezbollah, while weakened following war with Israel, remains a strong political force in Lebanon represented in parliament.
Lebanon’s government last year committed to disarming the group, with the army saying last month it had completed the first phase of the plan covering the area near the Israeli border.
Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming since the war, has called the Lebanese army’s progress on disarming the militant group insufficient.
