Nasrallah Rejects Smuggling, Says U.S. Waging 'Economic War' on Lebanon

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stressed that his party rejects the smuggling of fuel and other subsidized goods from Lebanon to Syria, as he accused Washington of waging an “economic war” on the country.

“We reject smuggling and we do not accept it. We are not covering anyone. Let anyone come forward and say that Hizbullah has intervened for the release of anyone arrested by the Lebanese Army, the Lebanese security forces or the Lebanese judiciary on charges of smuggling diesel and gasoline to Syria,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking the ninth night of the Ashura religious commemorations.

Moreover, Nasrallah said that Hizbullah has contacted Syrian officials in a bid to secure urgent quantities of diesel for hospitals, bakeries and serum factories, adding that the officials in Damascus said that their country lacks the ability to help Lebanon seeing as Syria itself is going through a fuel shortage crisis.

“We support all the measures that prevent smuggling. Let the state shoulder its responsibility and prevent smuggling,” Hizbullah’s chief added, noting that his party lacks the logistic ability to deploy on Lebanon’s entire eastern border with Syria.

As for the severe economic crisis in the country, Nasrallah called the situation an “economic war” aimed at “subjugating the Lebanese people, topped by the Resistance.”

“America wants Lebanon to be subservient and humiliated,” Nasrallah said, accusing the U.S. State Department and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea of trying to dictate orders on Lebanon.

Washington “wants the Lebanese to bow as to appointments, policies, border demarcation, how to deal with the resistance and how to surrender to Israel,” Nasrallah charged.

He added that the U.S. had backed NGOs during the October 17 uprising in a bid to topple the president, the government and the parliament, and to force early legislative polls and a government with extraordinary powers, in order to eventually “impose a new president, a new government and a new parliament."

Nasrallah also alleged that Washington had “exerted pressure” on then-PM Saad Hariri and “forced him to resign.”

“They were overseeing the scheme that started in October 2019,” Nasrallah claimed.

He also emphasized that Hizbullah’s military readiness is intact despite the economic “collapse” in the country.