While Lebanon is plagued by fuel shortages, dozens of trucks carrying Iranian fuel oil and transported by Hezbollah arrived in Lebanon on Thursday (September 16) from Syria, an AFP correspondent noted on the spot. 

In August, the leader of the pro-Iran Shiite movement, Hassan Nasrallah, announced the departure of a first Iranian ship loaded with fuel destined for Lebanon, promising that others would follow, as the Lebanese state, in bankruptcy and short of foreign currency, difficulty in importing.   

A first convoy of 20 tankers, carrying Syrian license plates entered Lebanese territory Wednesday morning via an illegal passage in the region of Hermel, in the east of the country, said the AFP correspondent on the spot. .

Four million liters of gasoline

Arrived from Syria, where the Iranian ship unloaded its cargo at the port of Banias, the tankers were greeted with jubilation by supporters of the pro-Iranian party stationed along the road leading from Hermel to Baalbeck, two strongholds of the Hezbollah.

On both sides of the road, women threw ulueus along with rice and rose petals, while men waved Shiite party flags.  

A total of 80 tankers, with a total capacity of four million liters, were due to arrive in Lebanon on Thursday.

They will unload their cargoes at Baalbeck in the tanks of Amana service stations, held by Hezbollah and targeted since February 2020 by US sanctions, before being distributed on the market, in order of priority.     

"It is humanitarian aid that meets the needs of the population and producers of bread, flour and basic necessities," said Jawad, 50, a resident of Hermel.

Hezbollah has in fact decided to offer half of the cargo free of charge: 15 million liters will be distributed between September 16 and October 16 to government hospitals, orphanages, retirement homes and municipalities that so wish.

Hezbollah "will not take the place of the state, it is a temporary measure until the state can assume its functions", he adds, in allusion to the criticisms leveled by the Lebanese at the address of the party, accusing it of establishing a state within the state and exposing Lebanon to the risk of economic sanctions.

>> To read also on France24.com:

"Hezbollah has become the main force of the counter-revolution in Lebanon"

Sworn enemy of the United States and Israel and targeted by sanctions, Hezbollah is a heavyweight in Lebanese politics.    

Since the fall of 2019, Lebanon has been living at the rate of an unprecedented crisis, described by the World Bank as one of the worst in the world since 1850, having seen its national currency lose more than 90% of its value against the dollar.

For months, endless queues have formed in front of gas stations.

The arrival of Iranian fuel comes a few hours before the planned adoption by the new government of its action plan, after the establishment on Friday of a ministerial team after thirteen months of a vacuum that aggravated the crisis.

With AFP

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