Hezbollah agrees to export Iranian fuel to Lebanon

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, said Friday that a third ship carrying Iranian fuel had agreed to cut the country’s deficit.

“We agreed to load a third ship,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

“The coming days will show doubts about the upcoming shipments of fuel… Our words will be clear when the first ship arrives in Lebanon.”

Nasrallah said on Sunday that the first ship carrying Iranian fuel to Lebanon had already left.

Hezbollah’s enemies in Lebanon have warned of dire consequences from the purchase, saying there is a risk of sanctions being imposed on a country whose economy has been faltering for nearly two years.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gives a televised speech after a bombing in the Beirut port on Tuesday, August 7, 2020.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Makadi said in an earlier interview with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Haddad TV channel on Friday that he was against anything that harms Lebanon’s interests, but told critics of Iran’s fuel deals that the country should not help.

He blamed the economic crisis in Nazareth, the US economic embargo.

Nasrallah said in his speech to the United States: “Liberate Lebanon from Iranian gasoline and diesel…Go and remove Lebanon from Caesar.”

Lebanon’s worst fuel shortage hit the country this month, threatening to halt daily life.

Nasrallah urged senior politicians to stop discussing the names of the new government and to form a government quickly.

“It is time for this discussion to end,” he said.

Lebanon leads the interim government headed by Hassan Deeb, who resigned from his government a year ago after a huge explosion in a port in the capital, Beirut.

Makadi was appointed as the third prime minister to try to form a government with President Michael Aoun, a Hezbollah ally.