Hezbollah chief claims group provided $10 million in fuel

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah claimed the group spent $10 million to provide affordable fuel in the country since September as severe shortages continue.

Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech that the Iranbacked group gave away about $2.6m worth of fuel to municipalities, NGOs and public hospitals, while another $7.4m was sold at heavily subsidised rates.

In September, Hezbollah’s attempt to circumvent US sanctions and import fuel from Iran drew international scrutiny. Iranian tankers docked in the Syrian port of Baniyas and the fuel was transported by lorries across Syria and into Lebanon.

Nasrallah said the group would continue to ship fuel to Lebanon, with another Iranian tanker set to arrive at Baniyas within days. He said the group would make people living at high altitudes in Lebanon its priority as winter approaches.

Hundreds of Hezbollah supporters greeted the lorries’ arrival with gunfire while claiming the convoy had broken a US-engineered siege of Lebanon.

At the heart of the crisis is the Lebanese Central Bank’s inability to supply foreign currency to pay for fuel imports, which the country’s power plants rely on.

One of the first moves by the new government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati was to cut subsidies. For decades, Lebanon had some of the cheapest fuel in the world, despite not being an oil-producing nation.

Before the economic crash, which began in 2019, blanket subsidies on fuel and other goods were costing Lebanon about $7 billion a year.

In October, the country was plunged into two brief blackouts caused by fuel shortages.

The energy crisis has prompted the US to throw its weight behind an alternative plan to import gas from Egypt through Jordan and Syria.

Hezbollah supporters celebrated the arrival of fuel lorries in Lebanon with gunfire, claiming a US siege was beaten