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A30 world news
Diabierna 17 September 2021

Hezbollah brings Iran fuel to Lebanon despite US sanctions

been sanctioned by consecu- der, away from formal border voy. Hezbollah’s yellow flags
tive U.S. administrations. crossings. and banners praising the
Iran-backed group and Syr-
Lebanon’s crisis is rooted in Nasrallah said in a televised ia’s President Bashar Assad
decades of corruption and speech earlier this week that decorated the streets. A few
mismanagement by the rul- the tanker did not offload its women showered the trucks
ing class and a sectarian-based cargo directly in Lebanon to with rice and flowers as they
political system that thrives avoid embarrassing authori- drove past. Others raised
on patronage and nepotism. ties and risking sanctions on banners reading: “Thank
Severe shortages in fuel have Lebanon. you Iran,” and “Thank you
resulted in crippling power Syria.” Heavy gunfire, and
cuts. People wait hours in Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV at least one rocket propelled-
line for gasoline. Protests and called it “the tanker truck grenade, were fired in cel-
scuffles have broken out at convoys to break the Ameri- ebration.
gas stations around Lebanon can siege.” It said the trucks
including in some Hezbollah were on their way to the east- Lebanon’s new Prime Min-
(AP) — Dozens of trucks “This is a very big and great strongholds. ern Lebanese city of Baalbek ister Najib Mikati, whose
carrying Iranian diesel thing for us because we broke where a Hezbollah-linked government was formed last
arrived in Lebanon on the siege of America and for- Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed distribution company will week after a 13-month po-
Thursday, the first in a eign countries. ... We are Hassan Nasrallah, an- start distributing the fuel. litical deadlock, has not com-
series of deliveries orga- working with the help of God nounced last month that Iran Nasrallah said the company, mented on Hezbollah’s deal
nized by the militant He- and our great mother Iran,” was sending fuel to Lebanon al-Amana, which is already to import fuel from Iran.
zbollah. The powerful said Nabiha Idriss, a Hezbol- to help ease the crisis. The under U.S. sanctions, won’t
group operates indepen- lah supporter gathered with first Hezbollah-commis- risk new penalties. Nasrallah has said a month’s
dently from Lebanese au- others to greet the convoy as sioned Iranian oil tanker ar- worth of diesel would be
thorities, which are strug- it passed through the eastern rived in the Syrian port of For critics, however, the con- donated to public hospitals,
gling to deal with a crip- town of Al-Ain. Baniyas on Sunday and the voy is a symbol of the disso- nursing homes, orphanages,
pling energy crisis. diesel was unloaded to Syrian lution of the Lebanese state. water stations and the Leba-
There was no immediate storage places before it was While the oil delivery was nese Red Cross. He said fuel
The overland delivery comment from Lebanese or brought overland to Leba- seen as a victory for Hez- would also be sold at dis-
through neighboring Syria U.S. officials on the Iranian non on Thursday by tanker bollah, the group is facing count prices to private hospi-
violates U.S. sanctions im- fuel delivery. Local commen- trucks. growing internal criticism tals, pharmaceutical factories,
posed on Tehran after former tators said Washington, wor- for increasingly pulling Leba- bakeries and cooperatives
President Donald Trump ried about chaos in Lebanon The convoy of 60 trucks, each non into Iran’s orbit and for that sell food products.
pulled America out of a nu- amid raging, multiple crises, carrying 50,000 liters (13,210 defending its political allies
clear deal between Iran and may have decided to look the gallons), went through an who resist change rather than He said three other tankers
world powers in 2018. other way. informal border crossing in push for reform. carrying diesel and one car-
Qusayr in Syria. Another rying gasoline are to arrive in
The shipment is being por- Hezbollah has portrayed the convoy of 60 tanker trucks is “Don’t forget this day,” the coming weeks.
trayed as a victory by Hezbol- Lebanese economic melt- expected Friday. tweeted Laury Haytayan, a
lah, which stepped in to sup- down, which began in late Lebanese oil and gas expert Faced with the possibility of
ply the fuel from its patron, 2019, as partly caused by an Hezbollah, often accused of and activist, describing it as Iranian fuel arriving in Leba-
Iran, while the cash-strapped informal siege imposed by operating a state-within-a- the day Hezbollah won over non, U.S. officials have said
Lebanese government grap- America due to the militant state, has been taking part the Lebanese state. they are discussing long-term
ples with months-long fuel group’s power and influence in Syria’s civil war alongside solutions for the energy crisis
shortages that have paralyzed in Lebanon. The group — government forces. It man- Lebanese gathered on the in Lebanon, including a re-
the country. designated a terrorist organi- ages its own crossing points roadside leading to Lebanon’s cently revived natural gas line
zation by Washington — has along the Lebanon-Syria bor- Bekaa Valley to greet the con- from Egypt.

With foreign funds frozen, Afghan aid groups stuck in limbo

(AP) — A month after the tions from the World Bank, tinues.” some $8.5 billion a year — even pay the import taxes
fall of Kabul, the world is the European Union and the nearly half of the country’s needed to bring containers
still wrestling with how to U.S. Agency for Internation- Donor countries pledged gross domestic product. of badly needed food from
help Afghanistan’s impov- al Development. The $600 during a United Nations ap- a port in Pakistan, the coun-
erished people without million in funds, which were peal this week to open their Without access to its own or try’s Chamber of Commerce
propping up their Taliban funneled through the Afghan purse strings to the tune of foreign funds, the interim and Industry Vice Chairman
leaders — a question that Health Ministry, dried up $1.2 billion in humanitarian government in Kabul can’t Yonus Momand said.
grows more urgent by the overnight after the Taliban aid. But attempts by Western
day. took over the capital. governments and interna-
tional financial institutions
With the Afghan government Now, clinics in Afghanistan’s to deprive the Taliban-con-
severed from the internation- eastern Khost Province no trolled government of other
al banking system, aid groups longer can afford to clean funding sources until its in-
both inside Afghanistan and even as they are beset with tentions are clearer also has
abroad say they are struggling COVID-19 patients, and the Afghan’s most vulnerable
to get emergency relief, basic region’s hospitals have asked citizens hurting.
services and funds to a popu- patients to purchase their
lation at risk of starvation, own syringes, according to The World Bank, the Inter-
unemployment and the coro- Organization for Health Pro- national Monetary Fund and
navirus after 20 years of war. motion and Management’s the European Union sus-
local chapter head Abdul pended financing for projects
Among the groups struggling Wali. in Afghanistan, and the Unit-
to function is a public health ed States froze $7 billion in
nonprofit that paid salaries “All we do is wait and pray Afghan foreign reserves held
and purchased food and fuel for cash to come,” Wali said. in New York. Foreign aid to
for hospitals with contribu- “We face disaster, if this con- Afghanistan previously ran