DAMASCUS — Syria has agreed to help crisis-hit Lebanon by letting gas
and electricity transit through its territory, an official said Saturday during
the first high-level visit from Beirut to Damascus since Syria's civil war
erupted.
اضافة اعلان
Harsh fuel shortages and power cuts inflicted by Lebanon's economic collapse
have paralyzed businesses such as restaurants, shops and industry as well as
vital services like hospitals.
Now Beirut hopes to strike a deal to import gas from Egypt and electricity
from
Jordan using Syrian infrastructure — with Washington's blessing despite US
sanctions against the Damascus regime.
Syria is "ready" to help Lebanon with "transit for Egyptian
gas and Jordanian
electricity via Syrian territory," senior official Nasri
Khouri told reporters, after the delegation led by interim deputy prime
minister Zeina Akar met Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Al-Meqdad and Oil
Minister Bassam Tomeh.
"The parties agreed to set up a joint team to track technical
details" of the plan, added Khouri, who is secretary-general of the
Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council.
Lebanon's energy minister, Raymond Ghajar, said a meeting would be held next
week in Jordan with representatives from Beirut, Amman, Damascus, and Cairo to
discuss technical and financial issues and to decide on a work plan and
timetable.
Work will be needed to get Syria's war-ravaged infrastructure up to the task
of moving the energy.
Meanwhile Lebanon's presidency has previously spoken of US-led talks with
the World Bank to finance its imports.
US-Iran rivalry
Lebanon has maintained diplomatic ties with Syria but it adopted a policy of
dissociation from the conflict since it started in 2011, putting a dampener on
official dealings.
Lebanese security officials and politicians have made several visits to
Syria in recent years, but almost exclusively in a personal capacity or on
behalf of political parties that support President Bashar Al-Assad's
government.
They include representatives of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement,
which has been battling alongside Assad's forces in Syria since the early
stages of the war.
The visit comes after the Lebanese presidency last month said that
Washington has agreed to help Lebanon secure electricity and natural gas from
Jordan and Egypt through Syrian territory.
This implies that the US is willing to waive Western sanctions which
prohibit any official transactions with the Syrian government and which have
hampered previous attempts by Lebanon to source gas from Egypt.
That announcement followed Hezbollah's statement that Iran would begin
sending fuel to Lebanon, with shipping website Tanker Trackers saying Friday
that the first two ships had set off.
Lebanon, a country of more than six million people, is grappling with an
economic crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the planet's worst in
modern times.
The central bank is struggling to afford basic imports, including fuel,
which has caused shortages and prolonged power cuts that now last as long as 22
hours per day.
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