The Lebanese Forces party warned that dealing at the ministerial level with the Syrian regime “may formally expose Lebanon to US sanctions, under the Caesar Act.”
This comes after the minister of health in the caretaker government, Hamad Hasan, visited Damascus and received a Syrian donation of 75 tons of oxygen.
On Wednesday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced that 25 tons of oxygen would be sent to Lebanon in a first batch, according to the official Syrian News Agency (SANA), as part of the 75 tons the Syrian authorities have pledged to provide to the country.
Former deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani said the agreement to receive oxygen from Syria had no added value as Lebanon imports oxygen from multiple countries when the demand temporarily exceeds the production capacity of local laboratories.
Hasbani noted that a Lebanese-Syrian private factory was meeting the oxygen needs, but suddenly its trucks coming from Syria were prevented from entering the Lebanese territories.
“Importing from the private sector is one thing and dealing at the ministerial level is quite another,” he warned, adding that Lebanon might be formally exposed to US sanctions, such as the Caesar Act, if this relationship continues and involves financial or in-kind exchange, such as medications and vaccines.
Earlier this week, Hasan had arrived in Damascus on an unannounced visit.
He told reporters: “We have nearly a thousand patients on respirators in the intensive care rooms. Had the remaining quantities were exhausted, which were only enough until today (Wednesday), thousands of lives would have been lost.”
He noted that “bad weather” impeded the arrival of “shipments from various sources to Lebanon.”
