SANCTIONED SYRIAN SHIP CARRYING ‘STOLEN’ UKRAINIAN GRAIN INTERCEPTED BY LEBANON

Sat 30 July 2022:

A Lebanese prosecutor seized a Syrian-flagged ship on Saturday that had been moored at a port in the north with a cargo of Ukrainian grain that Kyiv’s embassy in Beirut claimed was “illegal” on board. Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat reportedly instructed police to investigate the Laodicea, which docked in Tripoli earlier this week, according to a legal official.

Lebanese police were also urged to get in touch with the Ukrainian embassy after learning that the grain on the ship flying the Syrian flag was loaded from a location under Russian military control.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February, and Kyiv has frequently accused Moscow soldiers of pillaging its grain storage facilities. “The Syrian-flagged ship is carrying barley and flour,” according to the Lebanese foreign ministry. Ihor Ostash, the ambassador for Ukraine, informed Michel Aoun, the president of Lebanon, on Thursday that the ship was carrying “illegal barley from occupied Ukrainian territory”.

According to early reports, the grain belongs to a Syrian businessman, and the shipping company’s owner is a Turkish person, the court official added. The person further stated that some of the goods will be transferred to Syria and others would be unloaded in Lebanon. The documentation for the ship was “all in order and there is no proof that the merchandise was stolen,” a customs official told AFP.

According to some media reports, the US imposed sanctions on Laodicea as part of its campaign against the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria years ago. The incident happened as Ukraine, one of the world’s top exporters of grains, was getting ready to start exporting grains as a result of a deal supported by the UN.

Millions of tonnes of food are trapped in Ukraine due to a Russian naval blockade and mines planted by the Ukrainian government to prevent an amphibious landing on the Black Sea coast. The Laodicea was seized amid severe bread shortage in Lebanon, which is undergoing one of the worst financial crises in recorded history.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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