Mawlawi said that the shipment was heading to Africa and “could have ended up in the brotherhood Arab countries and Saudi Arabia.” (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi announced in a press conference Tuesday that the Internal Security Forces had foiled a smuggling operation in which a captagon shipment hidden in 7 tons of tea may have been destined for Saudi Arabia.
Here’s what we know:
• Speaking from the ISF Directorate, Mawlawi said that the shipment was heading to Africa and “could have ended up in the brotherhood Arab countries and Saudi Arabia.”
• “We ask all security forces including Lebanese customs to be very careful on the shipments that are heading out of Lebanon and be aware to search them,” Mawlawi said. “We assure our brotherly Arab countries that as agreed we will work day and night to prevent them from harm,” he added.
• On Sunday, the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad Al-Sabah presented a letter to Lebanese authorities that includes proposals to prevent the smuggling of drugs. The letter also includes a proposal to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which requires the disarmament of all non-state groups, including Hezbollah. A diplomatic rift has persisted between Lebanon and several Gulf countries including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia since October last year following the broadcast of comments by then-Information Minister George Kurdahi that were critical of Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen.
• Lebanon has in recent months foiled a number of similar drug smuggling operations. In April, Saudi Arabia banned Lebanese produce imports after more than 5 million captagon pills were discovered in a shipment of pomegranates that had arrived in the kingdom from Lebanon.