Lebanon: Geagea agrees with Hezbollah call for Iran oil imports

The leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, Samir Geagea, has backed a proposal by the Hezbollah movement to import fuel from Iran.

“I think that the Lebanese government should agree with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s proposal to import Iranian fuel for free in order to set up energy production plants in the country,” Geagea wrote in a post on his Twitter account yesterday, referring to the Hezbollah secretary-general.

Last year, Hezbollah arranged several shipments of Iranian fuel to help ease the crippling shortages the crisis-hit country had been experiencing.

The arrival of fuel tankers were welcomed by Hezbollah’s mainly Shia supporters, however the movement’s rivals warned against the move. Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said it risked sanctions being imposed on the country which is already reeling from an economic meltdown. At the time, Geagea also criticised Hezbollah, accusing it of having usurped government authorities in security and military affairs, and now taking over economic decision making.

Following Lebanon’s general elections in May, the Saudi-backed Lebanese Forces emerged as the largest Christian party, while the Hezbollah-led bloc lost its parliamentary majority. After the election, Geagea renewed previous calls for the Iranian-supported movement to disarm, saying that “security and military matters should be handled exclusively by the Lebanese army”.

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