Ukraine Urges Lebanon to Reverse Decision to Clear Grain Shipment for Travel

A view shows the ship "Laodicea" docked at port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, July 29, 2022. REUTERS/Walid Saleh
A view shows the ship "Laodicea" docked at port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, July 29, 2022. REUTERS/Walid Saleh
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Ukraine Urges Lebanon to Reverse Decision to Clear Grain Shipment for Travel

A view shows the ship "Laodicea" docked at port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, July 29, 2022. REUTERS/Walid Saleh
A view shows the ship "Laodicea" docked at port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, July 29, 2022. REUTERS/Walid Saleh

Ukraine called on Lebanon on Thursday to reverse a decision by a court in Tripoli to authorize the departure of a seized Syrian ship carrying what Kyiv says is stolen Ukrainian grain.

In a statement, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said it was disappointed by the court's decision to clear the Syrian-flagged Laodicea for departure and said that Kyiv's position had not been taken into account.

Earlier, transport authorities have allowed the ship to depart Lebanon despite the Ukrainian embassy asking Beirut to reopen a probe into the matter after presenting what it said was new evidence.

Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamie told Reuters on Wednesday afternoon that port authorities in the northern city of Tripoli had cleared the ship to depart.

A tweet from his account said the decision was "in accordance with Lebanese legal principles, based on our sovereignty over our land, sea and sky."

On Wednesday, Ukraine had asked Lebanon's top prosecutor to reopen a probe into the Syrian-flagged ship, the Laodicea, which it says is carrying some 10,000 tons of flour and barley plundered by Russia following its February invasion.

Ukraine's ambassador to Lebanon, Ihor Ostash, told a news conference at the embassy near Beirut that the request to investigate further was based on new evidence gathered by a Ukrainian judge and handed over to Lebanon on Monday.

The Lebanese prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat, lifted a first seizure order on the Laodicea, issued last week, on Tuesday after finding no criminal offence committed.

A judge in Tripoli told Reuters that a second 72-hour seizure order issued on Monday was no longer in place and the ship could now depart.

Moscow has previously denied stealing grain. Russia's Embassy in Lebanon said it had no information on the vessel or the cargo, which was shipped to Lebanon by a private company.



Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

"We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria," they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and Iran's allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.

"The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented," the petition stated.

Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.

With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.

Israel's pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.