Lebanese goods stranded on border allowed into Saudi Arabia

Cairo: Saudi authorities have allowed Lebanese goods stranded on the border into the kingdom, a Lebanese official has said.

Last week, Saudi Arabia announced a ban on Lebanese fruit and vegetable products, saying they were used in drug smuggling to the kingdom.

Lebanese Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi expressed thanks to Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed for what he described as a “good, humanitarian gesture” of permitting the goods stranded on the border and at the Saudi port of Jeddah into the Saudi territory.

The official said in a statement he is “certain that the kingdom of benevolence will spare no effort to reconsider its recent stance [the ban]”.

Saudi authorities said their country will not import the Lebanese fruit and vegetables or allow them to pass through its territory until the Lebanese authorities provide guarantees that their shipments will not be manipulated in smuggling drugs into the kingdom.

The Lebanese minister said his country is undergoing “a delicate stage”. Lebanon is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades.