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Lebanon Awards CMA CGM Contract for Beirut Port Container Terminal

A fisherman travels on a boat in front of a CMA CGM container ship passing through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt July 7, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
A fisherman travels on a boat in front of a CMA CGM container ship passing through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt July 7, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
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Lebanon Awards CMA CGM Contract for Beirut Port Container Terminal

A fisherman travels on a boat in front of a CMA CGM container ship passing through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt July 7, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
A fisherman travels on a boat in front of a CMA CGM container ship passing through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt July 7, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Lebanon has awarded France's CMA CGM (CMACG.UL) a contract for the management, operation and maintenance of the container terminal in the port of Beirut for 10 years, Public Works and Transport minister Ali Hamie told Reuters on Thursday.

A huge explosion at the port in 2020 killed more than 200 people and damaged entire neighborhoods, deepening Lebanon's worst political and economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

"The contract includes $33 mln that will be paid by CMA CGM to develop the work inside the port," the minister said, without revealing more details about the contract terms.

CMA CGM is controlled by the French-Lebanese Saade family and the group joined French President Emmanuel Macron in relief efforts in Beirut following the explosion.

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Erdogan Says Willing to Hold Summit with Putin, Assad to Normalize Ties with Damascus

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (AFP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (AFP)
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Erdogan Says Willing to Hold Summit with Putin, Assad to Normalize Ties with Damascus

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (AFP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed that he may invite his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad for a summit in Ankara. He did not specify a date.

Speaking to reporters on his return flight from a visit to Astana, he added that the summit may “kick off a new phase”, adding that Ankara was seeking to normalize ties with Damascus to prevent elections from being held in regions held by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces.

Erdogan met with Putin in Astana on Wednesday.

They discussed the conflict in Syria in wake of Russia’s latest efforts to resume talks to normalize ties between Ankara and Damascus.

Türkiye is seeking Moscow and Damascus’ support to prevent the August elections from being held. It did not turn to the United States, a backer of the SDF and its People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Turkish sources said the US, despite its opposition to the elections, will not abandon the establishment of a Kurdish state near Türkiye's southern border – a move Ankara vehemently opposes.

On Syria, Erdogan said last week that he was prepared to hold talks with Assad and restore Turkish-Syrian relations “to the way they were.”

He added that he had previously met with Assad and had “no problem” meeting with him again.

Assad had told Russian presidential envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev that his country was open to all initiatives that could normalize ties with Ankara.

Such ties should recognize the Syrian state’s sovereignty over all its territories and its fight against all forms of terrorism, he added.