Israel has shut down the makeshift port at Nakoura in the southern Lebanon security zone because it was being used to ship Israeli goods to Iraq in violation of the U.N.-imposed embargo, sources in Tyre reported Thursday.
Israeli officials refused to comment on the reports.
According to reports attributed to “security sources,” Israeli-produced food was being sent through Nakoura to Christian East Beirut, where Lebanese labels were affixed and the food transshipped to Iraq via Syria or Jordan.
Businessmen in Tyre, a port on the southern Lebanon coast, said Lebanese merchants have sent food to Baghdad through several Middle Eastern countries in defiance of the U.N. blockade.
The reports said the closure of Nakoura has dismayed officers of Gen. Antoine Lehad’s Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, who were collecting customs and other fees on incoming goods.
Nakoura, the only port of entry for goods consigned to the SLA and residents of the security zone, was an important source of revenue for Lehad’s forces.
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