Published on: 29.07.2022 – 14:24
A US-sanctioned Syrian ship that docked in the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon with barley and wheat on board stolen by Russia in Ukrainian warehouses, according to the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut.
From our correspondent in Beirut, Paul Khalifeh
The Laodicea has on board 5,000 tons of barley and 5,000 tons of flour, believed to have been taken from Ukrainian warehouses seized by Russian troops.
The Syrian ship docked in the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon on Wednesday (July 27), according to maritime data site MarineTraffic.
The issue of Lebanon’s purchase of stolen Ukrainian goods was raised by the Ukrainian Ambassador in Beirut with the President of the Republic Michel Aoun on Tuesday. The diplomat said the case could affect “bilateral relations” between the two countries.
The Ukrainian embassy said in a statement that the ship came from a port in Crimea that is closed to international shipping.
lack of bread
Although the affair was embarrassing, the Lebanese authorities took no action to prevent the ship from docking.
The population would disapprove of a ban on the import of wheat and grain, regardless of origin, in times of serious bread shortages: for days, long queues have formed in front of the few people at the bakeries that still supply the market.
Flour warehouses are almost empty and Lebanon has run out of storage capacity since the silos in the port of Beirut were destroyed during the August 4, 2020 explosion.
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