MOSUL TIME RADIO
A responsible Lebanese source revealed the Iraqi government’s “ annoyance ” at the Lebanese state’s behavior regarding the Central Bank of Lebanon’s continued refusal to pay the dues owed to Baghdad, as the price of the fuel it has been sending for a long time, to operate the power plants, according to what was published by the newspaper “Lebanon Debate” yesterday, Friday .
According to the newspaper, the Iraqi government now has a debt to the Lebanese state exceeding one and a half billion dollars .
Senior Lebanese sources had revealed earlier this August that Baghdad had refused to renew the agreement concluded with Beirut, which stipulates supplying Lebanon with quantities of “ fuel ” in exchange for services provided by Lebanon to Iraq, according to what was reported by the website Lebanese Economy
The website quoted those sources as saying that the failure to renew the agreement is due to purely financial reasons, and is directly related to the refusal of the Bank of Lebanon to open a credit to provide services to Iraq worth 700 million new dollars without real guarantees that the state will pay these amounts .
Lebanon signed an agreement with Iraq in July 2021 to import one million tons of fuel to alleviate the country’s electricity crisis, and the first ship arrived in Lebanon carrying 31,000 tons of this material on September 16, 2021 .
Iraq and Lebanon agreed to exchange energy, whereby Iraq will provide Lebanon, which is going through the worst economic crisis in its history, with heavy fuel oil, in exchange for “services and goods” that Iraq will obtain from Lebanon .
In August 2022, the Iraqi Council of Ministers approved the extension of the agreement to sell fuel oil to Lebanon, explaining that this decision comes in response to the difficult circumstances that the Lebanese are going through.
