Hezbollah says will ‘definitely’ import fuel from Iran, and do this in broad daylight

Hezbollah says it will surely take action to import gasoline from Iran as means of countering Lebanon’s dire fuel shortage, a product of the country’s worsening economic situation. 

“We will definitely import gasoline and fuel residue from Iran,” the Lebanese resistance movement’s Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday, Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network reported.

“And we will do this in broad daylight, not at night,” he added, reiterating his movement’s complete preparedness to take the measure towards resolving the crisis.

The small Mediterranean country has since 2019 been paralyzed by a major financial crisis, which has cut the value of its currency by more than 90 percent, eliminated jobs, and made banks freeze accounts.

Western countries have sanctioned Lebanon in order to punish it over the considerably high stakes and involvement that Hezbollah has in the country’s political and military spheres. The bans have played a major role in bringing about the financial nosedive.

The United States and others have endlessly been finding fault with Beirut’s inclusion of the group in its major sectors. 

The group has defended Lebanon against two major wars waged on it by the Israeli regime, the US’s most treasured ally in the region, in the 2000s. It has also vowed not to give up its resistance efforts in the service of the country’s security that is under constant Israeli threat.

Lebanon government accuses central bank of breaking law by removing fuel subsides

Lebanon’s caretaker premier says the central bank has broken the law by removing fuel subsides.

Since the onset of the economic crisis, which has thrown more than half the Lebanese population into poverty, the central bank has been effectively subsidizing fuel by using its dollar reserves to fund imports at exchange rates far less than the rates on the parallel market.

“The one, who stocks up on fuel so they can sell it on open market, has betrayed trust,” Nasrallah added. These include those who smuggle the already scarce commodity to neighboring Syria, he noted, calling them “traitors” racking up on “ill-gotten gains.”

‘US Embassy sabotage activities’ operation room’

Nasrallah considered the American Embassy in Beirut to be “the operation room” steering the recent unwelcome developments that have befallen the country, including incessant and drawn-out blackouts and other sabotage activities.

“What is happening in Lebanon today is exactly what is happening in Iraq, because there is a common operation room for directing such chaos,” he added, pointing to similar developments that have been occurring in Lebanon’s fellow Arab country.

‘Trust in US to turn Lebanon into another Afghanistan’

The official advised that those who have placed their trust in the US’s pledges, have a look at what has happened to Afghanistan. The US has forsaken millions of desperate Afghans, he said. 

Nasrallah also speculated that Washington and the Taliban militant group that has taken control of almost entire Afghanistan might have “made a deal” towards bringing about the chaotic situation in the Central Asian nation. “If such is true, this means that the US has betrayed its friends,” he stated.

However, the Hezbollah chief asserted that his movement believed that the Lebanese people, resistance, and army would stand up to such inroads and protect the country.

Nasrallah considered the situation in Lebanon to be verging on disintegration and disorder and strongly advised the Lebanese officials to stop procrastinating in forming an official government.

“The game of killing time has reached its end,” he said, and advised that such a government be shaped in the space of no more than only two or three days to address pressing issues.

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