An Iranian tanker with fuel destined for Lebanese power plants has arrived at the Baniyas oil port on the Syrian coast. This was reported on Friday by the press service of the Shiite Hezbollah party, which organized the purchase of Iranian oil products. The vessel will be unloaded at the Syrian port, and fuel, by agreement with the Syrian authorities, will be delivered across the land border to Lebanon by fuel tankers. This transportation route was chosen to avoid US sanctions against the Lebanese government.
On September 16, the first shipment of Iranian fuel oil arrived in the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, which was distributed among government hospitals and schools. Earlier, the leader of Hezbollah Sheikh Hasan Nasrullah said that the Shiite party will help overcome the fuel crisis in Lebanon, thanks to the supply of oil products from Iran. He said that businessmen associated with Hezbollah have purchased only four tankers – three with fuel oil and one with gasoline, which will be donated to fire brigades and the Lebanese Red Cross.
The head of the parliamentary faction “Fidelity to Resistance” Mohammad Raad called the initiative of the Shiite party “a patriotic action in the interests of the entire population of Lebanon, which suffers from a shortage of oil products.” According to him, “the American blockade, imposed against Lebanon for its position on Syria, was broken.” Hezbollah fighters have been fighting since 2012 on the side of the Syrian army against terrorist groups.
Rise in prices
Due to problems with the supply of fuel oil, the state electric company of Lebanon reduced the energy supply to the population to a minimum in the summer, and two of their four thermal power plants were shut down. The situation worsened after the decision of the Central Bank of Lebanon on August 12 to cancel state subsidies for fuels and lubricants due to the reduction of foreign exchange reserves, which caused a wave of street protests and long queues at gas stations.
On September 22, the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of Lebanon announced a 15% increase in prices for fuels and lubricants; earlier in August, prices for gasoline and fuel oil rose by 66%.
source: Russian News Agency TASS
