By Maya Gebaili and Laila Bassam
BEIRUT (Archyde.com) – A Syrian ship under US sanctions has docked in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli, carrying barley and flour, the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut told Archyde.com on Thursday that Russia had stolen from Ukrainian warehouses.
The Laodicea ship arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday, according to the Marine Traffic data website.
“The ship sailed from a port in the Crimea closed to international shipping, and it was carrying 5,000 tons of barley and the same amount of flour, which we suspect was taken from Ukrainian warehouses,” the embassy told Archyde.com.
“This is the first time that shipments of stolen grain and flour have arrived in Lebanon,” the statement said.
Russia has previously denied allegations that it is stealing Ukrainian grain. An official at the Russian embassy in Lebanon told Archyde.com he could not immediately comment.
The embassy told Archyde.com that Ukrainian Ambassador Ihor Ostach met Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Thursday to discuss the issue of the shipment and told him that buying stolen Ukrainian goods would “harm bilateral relations” between Kyiv and Beirut.
A Lebanese official confirmed that the issue was raised during a meeting with Aoun on Thursday, citing Ukraine’s general fears that Russia would try to sell stolen Ukrainian wheat to a group of countries including Lebanon.
Lebanese Economy Minister Amin Salam told Archyde.com that the Customs Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture were following up on the matter.
Salam had said earlier on Thursday that the acute shortage of bread in Lebanon would recede somewhat this week through new imports of wheat, but he did not say where it came from.
The Minister of Agriculture, the director of Lebanese customs and the director of the port of Tripoli did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamiyah told Archyde.com that the accuracy of the information received in the media is being checked and that the Lebanese law will be referred to in this regard.
A Lebanese customs official and a shipping source told Archyde.com that the port of Tripoli had not unloaded the ship, as it was suspected of carrying stolen goods.
“Nothing was removed from the ship – as soon as we got the information, we stopped everything,” the customs official said.
The Laodicea ship is one of three ships owned by the General Directorate of Syrian Ports that Ukraine says is transporting stolen wheat from warehouses in Ukrainian territory that Russia recently seized.
The United States has imposed sanctions on the three ships since 2015.
When asked about the Laodicea docking in Tripoli, State Department spokesman Ned Price said he could not comment on the ship in question, but said he could “confirm the fact that the Russians are stealing Ukraine’s grain” in general.
The arrival of Laodicea coincides with a new bread shortage crisis across Lebanon, where the three-year economic crisis has slowed the pace of imports of subsidized wheat.
Crowds of frustrated citizens stormed several bakeries this week in a country where the World Food Program says half the population is food insecure.
Lebanon used to import about 60 percent of its wheat imports from Ukraine, but shipments were disrupted by the Russian invasion and blockade of the main Black Sea ports used by Ukraine for export.
According to the Ukrainian embassy and the head of the Lebanese Mills Association, Ukraine resumed legal exports of wheat to Lebanon in mid-July.