Page 6 - MEOG Week 36 2021

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Lebanon-bound Iranian shipment

to be trucked in via Syria

IRAN/LEBANON THE first Iranian fuel oil cargo for Lebanon, “Choosing to receive the vessel via Syria is not
secured by Lebanon’s Shia Islamist political and related to any fear of [military] targeting by Israel
militant group Hezbollah, will be delivered via or the US but is due to internal considerations
Syria by truck to avoid complications related related to not wanting to implicate any allies,”
to sanctions, two sources with knowledge of one of the sources was quoted as saying.
the matter were quoted as saying by Reuters on Lebanon’s caretaker energy minister, mean-
Sepember 2. while, has said the government has not received
Hezbollah, founded by Iran’s Islamic Revolu- any requests for import permits for Iranian fuel.
tionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1982, said last The sources were further cited as saying that
month that a shipment of Iranian fuel oil was the shipment would arrive at a Syrian port before
on its way to help ease crippling shortages in being trucked to Lebanon, with the first prior-
Lebanon. ity seen as getting fuel oil to hospitals for power
Hezbollah’s foes in Lebanon have raised generation.
the prospect of bitter consequences from the On September 1, four US senators visiting
purchase. Lebanon told Lebanese officials that the US was
They have described it as sparking a risk of eager to help their country tackle its fuel short-
sanctions being imposed on a country with an ages but warned against Beirut seeking to import
economy that is in a state of near total collapse. Iranian oil to alleviate the problem.
The World Bank has described the country’s The Democratic senators said turning to
economic crisis as one of the world’s most severe Iranian supplies could have “severely damaging
since the 1850s. consequences”, The Associated Press reported.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 36 08•September•2021