Lebanon not preparing to negotiate with Iran on fuel imports -minister

BEIRUT, July 9 (Reuters) – Lebanon at present has no program to negotiate with Iran for the import of gas, energy minister Raymond Ghajar claimed on Thursday, right after the chief of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group claimed it was chatting to the Lebanese governing administration about the concept.

Hezbollah’s Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stated on Tuesday a “calm dialogue” was underway with the federal government more than the concept of Lebanon shopping for refined merchandise from Iran in Lebanese lbs ., easing the strain on Beirut’s challenging currency reserves.

Lebanon is struggling an acute money disaster and really hard forex liquidity crunch. The Lebanese pound has misplaced some 80% of its value since October, when the very long-brewing crisis came to a head.

“There is no program to negotiate with Iran at current about importing gas and the latest dialogue is with Iraq,” Ghajar stated, referring to talks with the Iraqi govt in excess of achievable gas materials.

Referring to Nasrallah’s responses, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed on Wednesday having oil from Iran would be unacceptable. “It would be sanctioned product or service for guaranteed, and we’ll do almost everything we can to make sure that Iran can not proceed to promote crude oil any where, including to Hezballah in the location…,” he said.

(Reporting by Tom Perry Enhancing by Mark Heinrich)