A Lebanese prosecutor on Saturday ordered the seizure of a Syrian-flagged ship that docked in a port in the north of the country with a cargo of "
stolen
" Ukrainian grain, according to the Kiev embassy in Beirut.
The Ukrainian authorities regularly accuse Russia of stealing Ukraine's crops in the areas it occupies, for domestic consumption or to sell them abroad illegally.
Protests and warnings
In Beirut, prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat has instructed the police to investigate the case of the "
Laodicea
" ship, anchored in the port of Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, a justice official told AFP.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Lebanon, Ihor Ostash, announced on Thursday that he had met the Lebanese president, Michel Aoun, and discussed "
the entry of a Syrian ship (...) loaded with barley, illegally, from occupied Ukrainian territories
”.
On Friday, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib announced on his Twitter account that he had received "
a number of protests and warnings from several Western countries after the arrival of a Syrian-flagged ship loaded with flour and of barley
”.
According to initial information, the director of the charter company is Turkish, while the goods belong to a Syrian merchant, the justice official said, adding that part of the cargo should be unloaded in Lebanon and the rest in Syria.
A customs official told AFP on Friday that after verification, "
the papers of the goods were in order and there was no evidence that they had arrived in Lebanon stolen
".
The incident comes in a country in the midst of economic collapse and suffering from wheat shortages.
Lebanese are lining up for bags of subsidized bread, as the country imports 80% of its wheat from Ukraine.
