Iran ready to send fuel ships to Lebanon in a week or two - Embassy

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Ships loaded with fuel will be sent by Iran within one or two weeks to Lebanon to help run the country's power plants, the Iranian embassy in Beirut told Al-Manar TV.

While a Lebanese delegation headed to Tehran to discuss energy cooperation, a spokesperson said they were not sure whether a fuel import agreement had been struck but "any gift from anywhere is welcome," he noted.    

Iran had previously proposed a fuel donation to Lebanon, and Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah expressed Hezbollah’s readiness to provide Iranian fuel to Lebanese power plants for free, conditioning the proposal to the Lebanese government's approval.

Lebanon and Iran are amid discussions related to building new power plants and fixing electrical power networks, the embassy said.

Last month, Al Mayadeen Net conducted an exclusive interview with Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayyad during which he hailed the Iranian donation amid Lebanon's fuel and power crises that have seen people receive less than two hours of electricity a day.

Meanwhile, he dismissed fears that Beirut will face any penalties for accepting Iran’s fuel donation.

Concerning the mechanism for accepting Iran’s donation to Lebanon, the minister pointed out that it is linked to a decision made by the Lebanese Council of Ministers. 

Lebanon has struggled with outages for decades but its economic meltdown since 2019 has drained state coffers, slowing down imports of fuel for power plants.

That has left most of the country with just one or two hours of state-provided electricity per day and forced households to rely on subscriptions to private generators that have skyrocketed as global fuel prices spiked.