Hezbollah: Will definitely import fuel from Iran in broad daylight

Hezbollah has said it will certainly take measures to import gasoline from Iran to counter the dire fuel shortage in Lebanon, which is a product of the country’s deteriorating economic situation.

“We will definitely import gasoline and fuel from Iran,” Lebanese Resistance Movement Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday, Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television station reported.

“And we will do this in broad daylight, not at night,” he added, reiterating his movement’s full readiness to take action to resolve the crisis.

The small Mediterranean country has been crippled since 2019 by a severe financial crisis that has reduced the value of its currency by more than 90 percent, destroyed jobs and caused banks to freeze accounts.

Western countries have sanctioned Lebanon to punish it for Hezbollah’s considerably high stakes and involvement in the country’s political and military spheres. The bans have been instrumental in bringing about the financial crash.

The United States and others have long faulted Beirut for including the group in its key sectors.

The group has defended Lebanon against two major wars waged against it in the 2000s by the Israeli regime, the most valued U.S. ally in the region. It has also vowed not to abandon its resistance efforts in the service of the security of the country, which is under constant threat from Israel.

Since the beginning of the economic crisis that has plunged more than half of Lebanon’s population into poverty, the central bank has effectively subsidized fuel by using its dollar reserves to finance imports at exchange rates far below those of the parallel market.

“Those who stockpile fuel to sell on the open market have abused trust,” Nasrallah added. This includes those who smuggle the already scarce commodity into neighboring Syria, he noted, calling them “traitors” who accumulate “ill-gotten gains.”

“U.S. embassy, operations center of sabotage activities.”

Nasrallah considered the U.S. Embassy in Beirut an “operations center” that controls the recent unwelcome developments that have hit the country, including incessant and protracted power outages and other sabotage activities.

“What is happening in Lebanon today is exactly what is happening in Iraq, because there is a joint operations center to direct such chaos,” he added, referring to similar developments that have taken place in the Arab country.

“Reliance on the U.S. is turning Lebanon into the next Afghanistan”

Nasrallah advised those who trusted in U.S. promises to look at what happened to Afghanistan. The U.S. has failed millions of desperate Afghans, he said.

He also speculated that Washington and the Taliban militant group that has taken control of nearly all of Afghanistan “may have made a deal” to bring about the chaotic situation in the Central Asian nation. “If this is true, it means the U.S. has betrayed its friends,” he said.

However, the Hezbollah chief maintained that his movement believed that the Lebanese people, resistance and army would withstand such attacks and protect the country.

Nasrallah considered the situation in Lebanon to be on the verge of disintegration and disorder and urged Lebanese officials to stop postponing the formation of an official government.

“The game of killing time is over,” he said, advising that such a government be formed within just two or three days to address urgent problems.