Iranian fuel tanks arrived in Lebanon?

The day after the Secretary-General of “Hezbollah”, Hassan Nasrallah, confirmed that he would import fuel from Tehran, in light of the scarcity in Lebanon, users of social media circulated a video whose publishers claim that it shows hundreds of Iranian fuel tanks that have arrived in Lebanon.However, this claim is incorrect, as the video shows tanks transporting oil within Syrian territory in 2020, according to the fact-finding service of the “Agence France Presse”.

In the video, hundreds of tanks cross a highway, and written above these scenes, “Iranian fuel is in the middle of the day, Lebanon welcomes you.”

The accompanying comments included expressions of thanks to Iran and Nasrallah, and the video had a great spread on social networking sites in Lebanon, especially in the WhatsApp application. The Lebanese have been waiting for weeks for hours in long queues in front of gas stations, which have adopted a policy of severe rationing in the distribution of gasoline and diesel. The main reason for the crisis is that the Banque du Liban no longer has enough foreign currency to open credits for importing fuels.

Officials link the fuel crisis to two main factors: the initiative of merchants and station owners to store fuel, and the increase in smuggling operations to neighboring Syria.

But the circulating video is old and has nothing to do with the fuel crisis in Lebanon. After cutting it into fixed scenes, the research indicated that it was published on social media and news sites, including the Iranian Al-Alam TV website during July 2020.

It was stated in the accompanying comments that it shows thousands of tanks carrying crude oil from the inside and the Syrian coast to the Homs and Baniyas refineries.