Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut says cargo vessel carrying stolen barley docked within the port of Tripoli on Thursday.
Printed On 28 Jul 2022
A Syrian cargo ship, sanctioned by the US and carrying what Ukraine says is stolen barley from the nation, has docked in Lebanon, the Ukrainian diplomatic mission within the Heart East nation has said.
In line with the Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut, the cargo vessel Laodicea docked within the port of Tripoli, Lebanon’s 2nd-supreme city, on Thursday.
The embassy instructed the Reuters knowledge agency that it suspected the ship used to be carrying 5,000 tonnes of barley and 5,000 tonnes of flour.
The US Department of the Treasury sanctioned the Laodicea in 2015 for its affiliation with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Ukraine has accused Russia of plundering grain and steel from its territory since Moscow invaded the nation in late February in what Russia calls a “particular defense pressure operation”. The embassy in Beirut did not elaborate or express how the barley used to be purportedly stolen from Ukraine.
Marine Traffic, which monitors vessel online page online visitors and the positioning of ships on seas, furthermore confirmed the ships docking in Tripoli on Thursday.
The Laodicea used to be initially heading to Tartus Port in Syria, and used to be expected to attain there earlier this week.
It used to be unknown why it had rerouted to Lebanon, and whether or not or not it’s offloading the cargo right here.
Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian Ambassador Ihor Ostash met Lebanese President Michel Aoun and warned the Lebanese leader that shopping for stolen items from Russia would “hurt bilateral ties”, per the embassy assertion.
Kyiv had beforehand praised Lebanon for condemning Russia for its warfare on Ukraine.
Ukraine has promised to export wheat to Lebanon, within the meanwhile experiencing a crippling food security and financial crisis.
Lebanon’s economy minister Amin Salam instructed Reuters that the nation’s customs authority and its agriculture ministry had been following up on the recoil.
Salam had said earlier on Thursday that excessive bread shortages in Lebanon could well maybe be eased this week by contemporary wheat imports, however did not express where they had been coming from.
A customs legit and shipping source instructed Reuters that the Tripoli port had not offloaded the ship due to suspicions it used to be carrying stolen items.
“Nothing used to be taken off of the ship – as quickly as we bought the files, we stopped every thing,” the customs legit said.