An image grab from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV shows party leader Hassan Nasrallah delivering a televised speech from an undisclosed location on the occasion of Ashoura. (Credit: Al-Manar/AFP)
BEIRUT — A shipment of diesel will set sail from Iran to Lebanon within hours and more will follow, Hezbollah said Thursday morning, warning its US and Israeli adversaries that the ship would be considered Lebanese territory as soon as it departed.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said further ships would follow to help the people of Lebanon, who are enduring crippling fuel shortages as a result of the country’s 2-year-old financial meltdown.
“God willing, this ship and others will arrive safely,” Nasrallah said in a televised address commemorating Ashoura, when Shiites mark the death of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Hussein in battle in 680.
“We don’t want to get into a challenge with anyone; we don’t want to get into a problem with anyone. We want to help our people,” he said. “I say to the Americans and the Israelis that the boat that will sail within hours from Iran is Lebanese territory.”
Nasrallah, whose heavily armed group was founded with support from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in 1982, did not specify where or when the ship would arrive, saying this would be discussed when it reached the Mediterranean.
In April, Reuters reported that Hezbollah was preparing fuel storage space in Syria as part of its efforts to deal with the financial crisis in Lebanon, citing senior officials familiar with the efforts.
The group has fighters and influence in neighboring Syria, where Hezbollah has fought in support of President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s civil war.