Iranian Tanker Carrying Oil Bound for Hizbullah in Lebanon Enters Syrian Waters

An Iranian tanker carrying oil for Lebanon, which is suffering from an acute shortage of fuel, entered Syrian territorial waters Wednesday, according to both Lebanese and Iranian news outlets. The cargo of hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil will be offloaded at a Syrian port and transported to Lebanon overland, the Lebanese Al-Akhbar daily newspaper reported. Reports of the shipment come after Hizbullah announced last month that it would import the Iranian oil in order to help ease the shortage of fuel in Lebanon and Iran later announced that at least one tanker was on its way. Al-Akbar also says that Hizbullah will “donate” part of the fuel to government hospitals and residential care homes and will sell the rest through “a private company” to the private sector, and make a lot of money by doing so. Reports that the tanker has arrived come a day after Lebanon’s caretaker energy minister, Raymond Ghajar, said his ministry had not received a request from either Hizbullah or Iran to import the oil.