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Fuel Shortage Crisis Back in Lebanon as Smuggling to Syria Resumes

Hezbollah’s yellow flags flutter near a Lebanese army checkpoint in Kunin | AFP/THOMAS COEX
Hezbollah’s yellow flags flutter near a Lebanese army checkpoint in Kunin | AFP/THOMAS COEX
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Fuel Shortage Crisis Back in Lebanon as Smuggling to Syria Resumes

Hezbollah’s yellow flags flutter near a Lebanese army checkpoint in Kunin | AFP/THOMAS COEX
Hezbollah’s yellow flags flutter near a Lebanese army checkpoint in Kunin | AFP/THOMAS COEX

The fuel shortage crisis has returned to the forefront in Lebanon, and this time, it is not only the scarcity of government subsidies that is stoking it, but smuggling to Syria as well. A video depicting a fuel tanker crossing the border through Bekaa was widely shared on social media, as was a voice recording of the tanker’s owner threatening the state and those who share the video.

The video deeply frustrated citizens who are suffering from a scarcity of fuel and frequent diesel shortages and wait in queues to fill their tanks. Some stations, especially in the Bekaa, but also in the south and the north have even closed.

A member of the Strong Republic (Lebanese Forces deputies), Deputy Antoine Habshi, says: “Remaining silent about this matter is no longer acceptable. The video, if authentic, is a scandal for the authorities in power; their people are being humiliated in front of gas stations while the fuel it subsidizes is going to Syria."

In his conversation with Asharq Al-Awsat, Habshi adds: “Smuggling fuel to Syria is ongoing despite the recent announcement regarding a crackdown on this front, adding that “there are illegal crossings that are known to all and the goods smuggled to Syria clearly pass through them. Nothing is concealed, and the security forces should play their role."

The Supreme Defense Council had deliberated the illegal crossing issue in mid-May and decided to draft a holistic plan to establish military, security, and customs control centers aimed at curbing smuggling.

Habshi points out that “the smuggling issue is not new”. He considers that “today, more than any time in the past, it needs to stop it, especially in light of the (Central Bank’s) decision to lift subsidies on fuel imports because of the decline of its foreign currency reserves."

As part of the effort to curtail smuggling, the Economy Ministry, in collaboration with the Energy Ministry, set up a framework to monitor the quantities entering and being consumed in the local market. Fuel companies and distributors are required to submit to the Economy Ministry a list of the quantities sold and the customers (companies, fuel stations, and generator owners) who bought petrol and diesel on a weekly basis. According to citizens, however, the framework has not changed anything.

Zahir Suleiman, an advisor to the Caretaker Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar, explained that “this framework is still being followed, and it is being implemented in stages. The Ministry of Energy has worked on updating the files of companies that obtain (fuel) from state facilities and made it obligatory to own a filling station. This restrained shell companies.”

In his interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Suleiman stressed that “several companies that were found to have storage facilities without obtaining a storage license have been held accountable, and the necessary legal measures have been taken against them.”

Suleiman also pointed out that greater quantities were imported this year than the previous year and the year before that, meaning that either consumption has increased, or hoarding or smuggling schemes are being orchestrated. “This is the responsibility of the security authorities in charge of protecting borders.”

Many citizens reported that the fuel shortage in the Bekaa is due to “gas station owners’ preferring to sell it to smugglers who buy it at twice the rate set by the state to smuggle it to Syria.” Responding to these claims, Suleiman says that the ministry has not received complaints to this effect from the authorities concerned and that the company or gas station engaging in such actions would stop receiving its share of the facilities’ fuel if these claims are shown to be accurate.

For his part, the representative fuel distributors in Lebanon, Fadi Abu Shakra, believes that the fuel crisis stems from “the limited quantity received by distributors,” explaining that “there is a scarcity in state facilities.” He adds: “A steamboat arrived last Sunday, and a small part was delivered on Monday, and another part will be delivered today (yesterday), but the quantity does not meet market demand, so distribution is being.”

He expressed his hopes that the crisis would be solved as soon possible, stressing that, “it is the Energy Ministry’s issue. Distributors receive [fuel] from it and distribute, and they cannot do anything if they did not receive."

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Interviews

Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
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Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.