UN Provides Fuel to Maintain Critical Services in Lebanon

Barbers shave their customers outside their shop due to a power cut in Beirut, Lebanon, August 20, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Barbers shave their customers outside their shop due to a power cut in Beirut, Lebanon, August 20, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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UN Provides Fuel to Maintain Critical Services in Lebanon

Barbers shave their customers outside their shop due to a power cut in Beirut, Lebanon, August 20, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Barbers shave their customers outside their shop due to a power cut in Beirut, Lebanon, August 20, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

The United Nations has said that a $383 million humanitarian plan was launched three months ago to deliver crucial life-saving humanitarian assistance to most vulnerable Lebanese and migrants affected by the economic crisis in Lebanon.

“From the end of September, and as part of the Emergency Response Plan launched by humanitarian actors to step up assistance for the most vulnerable populations affected by the on-going crisis in Lebanon, 3.1 million liters of fuel have been provided to 515 critical facilities delivering vital services, including over 195 health facilities and 320 water pumping stations so far,” said Dr. Najat Rochdi, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, in a statement issued Friday.

“This exceptional fuel distribution to healthcare and water facilities across Lebanon has been ensuring provision of critical health, water and sanitation services to the most vulnerable populations affected by the ongoing energy crisis and preserve lifesaving humanitarian activities in all districts” she said.

Rochdi noted that the development of the fuel delivery plan has been covering all governorates, allowing the most vulnerable people to continue getting access to functioning health services and to safe drinking water.

“More than 300 water pumping stations have been provided with fuel, lessening most vulnerable families’ dependence towards more expensive alternatives such as bottled or trucked water tankers,” said the statement.

Over the past weeks, the emergency fuel supply has also been guaranteeing uninterrupted health activities to those most in need in Lebanon.

“The provision of emergency fuel has allowed 24 public hospitals to remain open, supporting more than 887 functional hospital beds, including care for COVID-19 patients,” Rochdi said.

She called on the Lebanese government to take its responsibility in ensuring that families have unhindered access to essential services and in implementing necessary measures to address the energy crisis.



Italy Says Suspending EU Sanctions on Syria Could Help Encourage Transition

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
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Italy Says Suspending EU Sanctions on Syria Could Help Encourage Transition

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)

Italy's foreign minister says a moratorium on European Union sanctions on Syria could help encourage the country's transition after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad by opposition groups.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani visited Syria on Friday and expressed Italy’s keen interest in helping Syria recover from civil war, rebuild its broken economy and help stabilize the region.

Tajani, who met with Syria’s new de facto leaders, including Ahmed al-Sharaa, said a stable Syria and Lebanon was of strategic and commercial importance to Europe.

He said the fall of Assad's government, as well as the Lebanon parliament's vote on Thursday to elect army commander Joseph Aoun as president, were signs of optimism for Middle East stability.

He said Italy wanted to play a leading role in Syria’s recovery and serve as a bridge between Damascus and the EU, particularly given Italy’s commercial and strategic interests in the Mediterranean.

“The Mediterranean can no longer just be a sea of death, a cemetery of migrants but a sea of commerce a sea of development,” he said.

Tajani later traveled to Lebanon and met with Aoun. Italy has long played a sizeable role in the UN peacekeeping force for Lebanon, UNIFIL.

On the eve of his visit, Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and officials from Britain, France and Germany as well as the EU foreign policy chief. He said that meeting of the so-called Quintet on Syria was key to begin the discussion about a change to the EU sanctions.

“The sanctions were against the Assad regime. If the situation has changed, we have to change our choices,” Tajani said.