Cash-strapped Lebanon signs fuel deal with Iraq to ease crisis

Lebanon to pay for 1 million tonnes of fuel a year in goods and services, helping ease its power shortage.

Iraq has signed an agreement allowing the cash-strapped Lebanese government to pay for 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil a year in goods and services, helping Lebanon ease its acute power shortage, the two sides said on Saturday. Lebanon is in the throes of an economic meltdown threatening its stability. It has all but run down foreign reserves and faces a growing shortage of fuel, medicine and other basic goods. Most Lebanese face power cuts for many hours a day. Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi and Lebanese caretaker Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar co-signed the agreement in the presence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.