Sun Jul 31, 2022 at 07:05 • AFP
A Lebanese prosecutor on Saturday ordered the seizure of a Syrian-flagged ship carrying a cargo of “stolen” Ukrainian grain docked at a port in the north of the country, according to the Kyiv embassy in Beirut.
That Ukrainian authorities regularly accuse Russia steal the harvest of Ukraine in the territories occupied by him, for domestic consumption or for illegal resale abroad.
In Beirut, prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat has ordered police to investigate the case of the ship “Laodicea” moored in the port of Tripoli in north Lebanon, a judicial official told AFP. Mr Oueidat ordered the “seizure of the ship pending the completion of the investigation,” added this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Lebanon Ihor Ostash announced Thursday that he had met Lebanese President Michel Aoun and discussed “the entry of a Syrian ship (…) loaded with illegal barley from occupied Ukrainian territories.”
On Friday, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib announced on his Twitter account that he had received “a series of protests and warnings from several Western countries following the arrival of a Syrian-flagged ship laden with flour and barley.”
According to initial information, the director of the charter company is Turkish, the goods belong to a Syrian merchant, the judicial officer said, adding that part of the cargo should be unloaded in Lebanon and the rest in Syria.
A customs official told AFP on Friday that after the inspection, “the goods had papers in order and there was no evidence that they had arrived in Lebanon stolen.”
The incident takes place in a country in the midst of an economic collapse and suffering from wheat shortages. Lebanese are lining up for bags of subsidized bread as the country imports 80% of its wheat from Ukraine.
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