Hezbollah official: Iran fuel imports will foil US plots against Lebanon

A senior official from the Hezbollah resistance movement says shipments of fuel from Iran to Lebanon in order to help ease the country’s energy crisis will thwart all plots that the United States has crafted in this regard.

The vice president of the executive council of Hezbollah, Sheikh Ali Da'moush, said on Friday that his group is utilizing all means at its disposal to address livelihood challenges facing Lebanese people and alleviate their suffering, stressing that the decision to import fuel from Iran is aimed at tackling the fuel supply crisis.

“Hezbollah's decision to import diesel and gasoline from Iran was not politically motivated and does not fall within the context of political or factional bickering. It was rather a decision taken on humanitarian and moral grounds,” Sheikh Da’moush said.

He said, “Hezbollah can never accept the siege and starvation of the Lebanese nation. The resistance movement cannot remain indifferent in the face of the country’s collapse and humiliation of the entire nation.”

“The decision would of course have political repercussions, as it has basically broken the siege that the US has imposed on Lebanese people, and foiled all its attempts to starve and humiliate the nation,” he added.

Sheikh Da’moush went on to say that the Lebanese nation is paying a heavy price over delayed government formation.

He said it is in the country’s best interests that political parties set aside their own preferences and seek quick solutions to existing obstacles.

“Hezbollah has long been helping the process of government formation, and offered its firm support for the matter to realize,” he noted.

Hezbollah head Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said a third shipment of Iranian fuel has been agreed to ease crippling shortages in Lebanon.

“We have agreed to start loading the third vessel,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Friday.

“The coming days will prove those doubtful about the shipments arriving with fuel wrong … and our words will be clear when the first vessel reaches Lebanon.”

On Sunday, Nasrallah said the first vessel carrying Iranian fuel for Lebanon had already departed.

Oil monitor TankerTrackers.com said an oil tanker had left Iranian waters on Thursday, while another was due to depart on Friday morning.

MG