The Lebanon-based buyer of the first grain shipment to depart Ukraine since Russia’s invasion has refused to purchase the cargo, according to Ukraine’s embassy in Beirut.

The buyer has raised concerns over the quality of the grain, due to the five-month delay in its shipment. The charterer is now looking for a new buyer inside Lebanon or the Middle East, an Istanbul-based ship agent with knowledge of the matter told Middle East Eye.

A Syrian-flagged ship named the Laodicea that docked in the Lebanese port of Tripoli was detained last Saturday, preventing desperately needed flour and barley from reaching people in the Middle East. The move came after Western threats against Beirut and unsubstantiated claims from Kiev that the cargo was stolen from Ukraine. The ship, which has been on a US blacklist since 2015 for allegedly carrying shipments from sanctioned Crimea, is now under investigation.

Lebanon’s armed Hezbollah group warned Israel on Sunday against drilling at an offshore gas field, renewing a threat that it could escalate the offshore border demarcation dispute to a war.

Israel has sent “strong warnings” to Hezbollah through diplomatic and military channels amid repeated threats from the terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to a Tuesday report.

The messages — passed along through the US and France — warned the terror group that any action taken against the offshore Karish gas field would provoke a strong IDF response, Channel 12 reported.

Transcript:

The Secretary General of Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on 13 July that if Lebanon is not allowed to drill for its natural resources in the disputed Karish gas field, “no one will be able to extract its gas or its oil.”

Hezbollah Secretary General warned on Wednesday the Israeli enemy and the United States that if Lebanon is prevented from extracting its maritime resources, ‘Israel’ will not be able to sell gas and oil.

Iran Press/ Middle East: In a televised speech, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah indicated that Hezbollah military forces are monitoring all the Zionist platforms across the occupied Palestinian coast, adding that the Resistance may resort to ground, maritime, or air forces to attack the enemy and secu

The Secretary-General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement says the resistance would not remain “silent” in the face of the Israeli regime’s efforts to plunder the country’s maritime gas resources.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made the remarks on Thursday after a vessel operated by a Greek company arrived at the Karish Gasfield in Lebanon’s territorial waters to extract gas for the occupying regime.

Lebanon's Hezbollah on Thursday vowed that it has the capabilities to prevent Israel from extracting oil and gas from a disputed offshore field in the Mediterranean.

In a televised speech, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his party "will not remain silent if the Israeli enemy steals Lebanon's oil and gas wealth."

He stressed that Hezbollah has the financial, military, logistical and human capabilities to stop Israel's extraction.