Pompeo Blatantly Threatens Lebanese People with Preventing Them from Buying Oil, Activists Respond

By Staff

“We are trying to prevent Iran from selling crude oil to Hezbollah,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it overtly, shamelessly.

The senior American diplomat confessed on Wednesday that his country is trying to prevent Iran from selling crude oil to Lebanon.

The Middle Eastern country is already grappling with deteriorating economy that started since protests erupted back in October last year, then continued to decline due to the lockdown imposed as a precautionary measure in the fight against the Coronavirus outbreak, in addition to the fall of the Lebanese currency rate against the US dollar.

The current situation in Lebanon requires urgent solutions, those that help it survive without accepting conditions imposed by foreign players. Pompeo’s remarks followed those made by the US ambassador and her intervention in the country’s affairs. A day earlier, Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah lectured Ambassador Dorothy Shea, advising her not to meddle in Lebanon’s affairs as her country will reach nowhere.

Pompeo’s remarks drew wide criticism among Lebanese social media activists, taking to Twitter to lash out at the interventionist American policy in their country. Using an Arabic hashtag addressed to Pompeo, telling him ‘we will break your siege’, the Lebanese activists’ campaign hit the trends, emphasizing that his hollow remarks would also go nowhere.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sayyed Nasrallah stated that Hezbollah was in discussion with the Lebanese government about Iran supplying refined oil products to Lebanon in exchange for Lebanese pounds to ease pressure on the plummeting currency. The Lebanese pound has lost 80 percent of its value since October as the country’s economic crisis has escalated.