Lebanon Ends 'Rupture' with Syria to Get Access to Egyptian Gas

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad and Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Zeina Akar in Damascus on Saturday (AFP).
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad and Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Zeina Akar in Damascus on Saturday (AFP).
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Lebanon Ends 'Rupture' with Syria to Get Access to Egyptian Gas

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad and Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Zeina Akar in Damascus on Saturday (AFP).
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad and Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Zeina Akar in Damascus on Saturday (AFP).

The Lebanese government ended on Saturday a rupture in official relations with Syria, with a high-ranking ministerial delegation visiting Damascus and holding talks to obtain its approval to allow the entry of gas and electric energy from Egypt and Jordan through Syrian territories.

Lebanon’s deputy Prime Minister, Zeina Akar, led the first official government visit to Syria since the outbreak of the conflict there, as Lebanon had officially followed the principle of “disassociation,” amid major divisions between the political forces over the relationship with Damascus and Hezbollah’s participation in the fighting alongside the Syrian regime forces.

Two weeks after the announcement of the Lebanese presidency of Washington’s approval to help Lebanon import electric energy and gas from Egypt and Jordan, through Syria, the Lebanese delegation headed to Damascus to meet with Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad and Minister of Oil Bassam Tohme.

In a press conference following the meeting, the Secretary-General of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council, Nasri Khoury, said: “The Lebanese side demanded Syria’s assistance to Lebanon in obtaining Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity through Syrian territory. The Syrian side affirmed Syria’s readiness to meet that request.”

The two sides agreed to follow up on technical matters through a joint technical team.

Tohme told reporters that the goal of the joint team was to determine the “readiness and safety of the infrastructure,” which suffered “significant damage” during the conflict.

Following the acute fuel crisis in Lebanon, the US effort led to an initiative to draw electrical energy from Jordan through Syria, by providing quantities of Egyptian gas to Jordan, enabling it to produce additional quantities of electricity to be placed on the grid linking Jordan with Lebanon via Syria.

The initiative also provides for facilitating the transport of Egyptian gas through Jordan and Syria, to reach northern Lebanon.

A similar agreement allows Egyptian gas to reach Lebanon to operate gas-fired power stations, which have been out of service for 11 years.

The Arab Gas Pipeline extends by land from Egypt to Syria and Lebanon via Jordan, and crosses from the Homs region in central Syria, all the way to Deir Ammar in northern Lebanon.



Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
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Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)

Politicians in Beirut said they have not received any credible information about Washington resuming its mediation efforts towards reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon despite reports to the contrary.

Efforts came to a halt after US envoy Amos Hochstein’s last visit to Beirut three weeks ago.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri dismissed the reports as media fodder, saying nothing official has been received.

Lebanon is awaiting tangible proposals on which it can build its position, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The only credible proposal on the table is United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, whose articles must be implemented in full by Lebanon and Israel, “not just Lebanon alone,” he stressed.

Resolution 1701 was issued to end the 2006 July war between Hezbollah and Israel and calls for removing all weapons from southern Lebanon and that the only armed presence there be restricted to the army and UN peacekeepers.

Western diplomatic sources in Beirut told Asharq Al-Awsat that Berri opposes one of the most important articles of the proposed solution to end the current conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

He is opposed to the German and British participation in the proposed mechanism to monitor the implementation of resolution 1701. The other participants are the United States and France.

Other sources said Berri is opposed to the mechanism itself since one is already available and it is embodied in the UN peacekeepers, whom the US and France can join.

The sources revealed that the solution to the conflict has a foreign and internal aspect. The foreign one includes Israel, the US and Russia and seeks guarantees that would prevent Hezbollah from rearming itself. The second covers Lebanese guarantees on the implementation of resolution 1701.

Berri refused to comment on the media reports, but told Asharq Al-Awsat that this was the first time that discussions are being held about guarantees.

He added that “Israel is now in crisis because it has failed to achieve its military objectives, so it has resorted to more killing and destruction undeterred.”

He highlighted the “steadfastness of the UN peacekeepers in the South who have refused to leave their positions despite the repeated Israeli attacks.”