Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Waleed Bukhari said Sunday there were attempts to smuggle 600 million narcotic pills from Lebanon during the past six years, a quantity that could “drown the Arab world with drugs and psychotropic substances.”
“The total narcotic substances and psychotropic substances brought from Lebanon by drug traffickers and seized [by Saudi authorities] amounted to more than 600 million narcotic pills and hundreds of kilograms of hashish over the past six years,” Bukhari said on Twitter.
He said the smuggling of these drugs is not targeting the Kingdom alone, but all parts of the Arab world.
Last Friday, Saudi Arabia banned the import of Lebanese fruits and vegetables or their transit through the Kingdom’s territories, as of Sunday, after the Customs in Jeddah Islamic Port foiled an attempt to smuggle 5.3 million pills of Captagon pills hidden in a consignment of pomegranate fruit imported from Lebanon.
Last week, Bukhari, who is currently in Riyadh, received a telephone call from
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Al-Rai revealed during his Sunday sermon that he had contacted Bukhari, who is currently in Riyadh, to condemn the drugs smuggling.
During the sermon, Rai conveyed the outcry of honest Lebanese farmers, calling on the government to launch a “swift investigation to unveil the perpetrators and smugglers and impose severe penalties on them, and resolve this problem with Saudi Arabia, which is the biggest supporter of Lebanese farmers, who export 80 percent of their products to it.”
Also on Sunday, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian expressed his concern about Saudi Arabia’s decision to close its borders to Lebanese agricultural products.
He said he understands the reasons for the decision, but hoped it would be temporary, pending the actions of the Lebanese state, which must take serious and decisive measures to prevent any further harm to Lebanese-Saudi relations.
Lebanon plans to hold a ministerial meeting at the Presidential Palace on Monday to discuss the issue.
However, several deputies criticized the Lebanese authorities’ delay in dealing with the problem.
“A meeting is planned on Monday to discuss the Saudi decision but doesn’t the Lebanese state work during the weekend? And why haven’t we directly sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia to address the issue,” said resigned Kataeb Party MP Elias Hankash.
Strong Republic bloc MP George Okais called on the judiciary to swiftly unveil the perpetrators, wondering whether the Lebanese agencies dare to uncover the parties behind the drug smuggling.
“Lebanon is not a state anymore, but an Iranian base where Iran acts to serve its interests,” he said.
