07 Sep 2021; MEMO: Jordan is to host a regional meeting to discuss energy and gas supplies to Lebanon, which continues to suffer from severe shortages of fuel and essential goods amid its political and economic crises.
According to the state-owned Jordanian broadcaster Mamlaka, Amman will host the energy ministers of Egypt, Syria and Lebanon tomorrow. A focus of the discussion will reportedly be Egypt's transportation of gas to Lebanon for the generation of electricity, which was agreed after the Biden administration in Washington held talks with Amman and Cairo on the issue.
Since the Beirut blast a year ago and the political leadership's failures, Lebanon has suffered from the lack of a viable government, a plummeting currency, and a consequent severe shortage of fuel. This has been compounded by rising prices over the past few months. Power cuts have affected the whole country.
Last week, the speaker of Lebanon's parliament asked the US to exempt it from the international sanctions imposed on the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria. Such an exemption will allow exports and imports to and from Syria, which would be a welcome lifeline for Lebanon, especially in commodities such as fuel.
On Saturday, a high-level Lebanese delegation visited Damascus to discuss the issue, and asked the Syrian regime to allow Egyptian gas to flow through Syria en route to Lebanon. The meeting to be hosted by Jordan will therefore seek to establish the transportation process to ease Lebanon's fuel crisis.
