Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib (third from left) meeting with an Iranian delegation in New York on Sept. 20, 2022. (Photo credit: Twitter/@Mofalebanon)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib met his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Tuesday in New York, where Amir-Abdollahian reaffirmed Iran's willingness to supply Lebanon with fuel, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted Tuesday morning. Bou Habib and Amir-Abdollahian had met on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly.
The Iranian foreign minister "reiterated Iran's willingness to supply Lebanon with fuel, and any other aid that the country requests in order to overcome its problems," the Lebanese foreign ministry tweet said.
According to Hezbollah's Al-Manar channel, an anonymous source confirmed on Tuesday that the Lebanese delegation, which is currently in Iran, has reached an agreement with Tehran to supply Lebanon with 600,000 tons of fuel over a period of five months.
L’Orient Today contacted the Iranian embassy, whose spokesperson said that they do not have any further information. They referred to a tweet that Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani posted Tuesday saying that "there is good news that will be announced soon" regarding the "Iranian fuel and the cooperation in the electricity field."
On Monday evening, the Iranian embassy in Beirut announced that "Iranian ships filled with fuel will be ready to sail towards Lebanon in one or two weeks and [will] arrive in any port that Lebanon chooses."
Caretaker Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayad met last week with an Iranian delegation headed by Ambassador Mojtaba Amani, with whom he discussed a possible donation of Iranian fuel oil to Lebanon, which is in the grip of an electricity crisis. A Lebanese delegation, which travelled to Tehran a few days ago to discuss the matter, also took part in the meeting.
Amani has proposed an Iranian "gift" of fuel to the Lebanese state, two government sources told Reuters earlier this month. "We are working on this being a donation and not a purchase so that we can avoid sanctions," one of the sources said.
For his part, the Iranian ambassador said that his "country is ready to help Lebanon not only in terms of fuel supply but in everything related to the energy sector, including the construction of power plants in the medium term."
Lebanon has struggled with power outages for decades, but its economic collapse since 2019 has drained state coffers, slowing fuel imports. Most of the country is supplied with state electricity for only one or two hours a day. Consumers instead must rely on private generators despite surging costs.
The US has also set heavy sanctions on Iran's energy sector, which means any party engaging in a financial transaction with the sector could be subject to secondary sanctions.
Last year, Iran sent fuel to Lebanon via Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the US and some other Western nations. That fuel was shipped to Syria and then brought into Lebanon in trucks to avoid sanctions. The US did not take any action in response.