A shipment of fuel oil will sail from Iran to Lebanon within hours and more will follow, Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah said on Thursday, telling the United States and Israel the ship would be considered Lebanese territory as soon as it sails.
Hezbollah has previously announced it was working on bringing fuel from Iran as Lebanon struggles with crippling power and gasoline shortages.
“God willing this ship will arrive and other boats safely,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed group, said in a televised address commemorating Ashura, when Shi’ites mark the death of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Hussein in battle in 680.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nafisa Eltahir and Laila Bassam; writing by Tom Perry; editing by Jason Neely)