Israeli Gas to Be Pumped to Syria and Lebanon through Arab Pipeline to Curb Iran’s Influence

In this Monday, March 29, 2021 file photo, the capital city of Beirut remains in darkness during a power outage as the sun sets, in Lebanon. (AP)
In this Monday, March 29, 2021 file photo, the capital city of Beirut remains in darkness during a power outage as the sun sets, in Lebanon. (AP)
TT

Israeli Gas to Be Pumped to Syria and Lebanon through Arab Pipeline to Curb Iran’s Influence

In this Monday, March 29, 2021 file photo, the capital city of Beirut remains in darkness during a power outage as the sun sets, in Lebanon. (AP)
In this Monday, March 29, 2021 file photo, the capital city of Beirut remains in darkness during a power outage as the sun sets, in Lebanon. (AP)

The gas that will be pumped to Lebanon through the Arab pipeline, which stretches from Egypt, Jordan and Syria, is mostly Israeli. The electricity that will be sent to Lebanon through Syria and Jordan is also mostly Israeli, in line with an agreement that was drafted years ago by senior US diplomat Amos Hochstein.

Just days ago, Hochstein himself sponsored border negotiations between Lebanon and Israel. He informed Beirut that the Arab Gas Pipeline will be exempted from the Caesar Act sanctions imposed by Washington on Syria. The US official was also behind a Jordanian-Israeli deal in 2014 that sought to promote an “axis of moderation in the Middle East between moderate Arab countries and Israel.”

Beyond the technical and economic aspects of the new gas deal, several signs indicate that it is ultimately aimed at confronting Iran’s influence in Lebanon and Syria. The greatest evidence of this is that the deal was announced just days within Tehran’s announcement that it was sending oil derivatives to Lebanon through Syria. Beyond the region, Moscow and Washington are also seeing eye-to-eye on this issue despite their varying motives and goals.

A western official quoted a senior Russian official as saying that Israel was the one who encouraged Russia and the US to force the return of the Damascus regime to southern Syria and agree to delivering energy to Lebanon. Israel believes that such a move will help confront Iran’s influence in Lebanon and Syria, said the Russian official. Furthermore, CIA chief William Burns, who had toured the region in recent months, was also involved in the gas deal, which was also backed by National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk.

Drafting the deal demanded extensive efforts and coordination: Establishing security in southern Syria where the gas and energy networks will pass through. Indeed, Russia led “settlements” in recent months that have seen the return of government forces along the border with Jordan. The opposition was forced out of the area, mines are being removed and Amman has since improved its relations with Damascus, with Jordan’s King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar Assad holding a telephone conversation early in October. Moreover, the Amman-Damascus highway was reopened and discussions have been held over border security and providing incentives to Damascus.

Ministerial meetings between Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Syria have also been held to overcome obstacles in the operation of the gas pipeline and energy network. Also part of the deal is Washington’s pledge to Moscow that the World Bank will fund the project through assistance to Lebanon’s Electricite du Liban (EDL).

Notably, US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea informed Lebanese President Michel Aoun that Washington had agreed to the proposal after holding telephone talks with the Egyptian and Israeli energy ministers. Those talks focused on “future plan to deliver Israeli gas for liquification in Egyptian plants before their export.” Israeli sources said the plan called for “delivering the Israeli gas through natural gas plants in Egypt ahead of their export to a third country.”

Egyptian and Israeli companies have struck several agreements over the years. In 2018, they agreed to the delivery of 64 billion cubic meters of Israeli gas from the Tamar and Leviathan Mediterranean fields to Egypt. The deal is valid for ten years and was worth 15 billion dollars. After Egypt declared self-sufficiency in gas production, it announced that the import of Israeli gas transforms it into a regional energy hub.

On the Jordanian front, Hochstein had kicked off negotiations over an electricity deal between Amman and Tel Aviv in 2012. Years later, Jordan’s National Electric Power Company reached an agreement with the American company representing the Leviathan field over the delivery of 45 cubic meters of gas for electricity production.

Washington’s interest in this project was piqued in order to provide political cover for the gas and electricity projects for Lebanon. American officials informed their Arab counterparts that the projects will be exempt from the Caesar Act that came into effect in mid-2020. Beirut, Cairo and Amman still demanded written guarantees and Hochstein informed the Lebanese officials of the exemptions.

In spite of the technical and political challenges, such as fixing the actual pipeline, removing mines and protecting the border, Washington has sought to remove legal obstacles and Moscow has sought to remove the military ones all for mainly political purposes, as opposed to economic ones.



The US Election by Numbers

Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)
Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)
TT

The US Election by Numbers

Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)
Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)

Swing states, electoral college votes, candidates up and down the ballot, and millions of potential voters: Here is the US election, broken down by numbers.

- Two -

Several independents ran -- and at least one, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, stumbled into a number of eyebrow-raising headlines.

But in the end, the presidential race comes down to a binary choice, with the two candidates from the major parties -- Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump -- seeking to lead a polarized America.

- Five -

November 5 -- Election Day, traditionally held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.

- Seven -

The number of swing states -- those which don't clearly favor one party over the other, meaning they are up for grabs.

Harris and Trump are courting voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, concentrating their campaign efforts there in a push to ensure victory.

In a razor-tight election, just a handful of votes in any of those states could decide the outcome.

- 34 and 435 -

Voters won't just decide the White House occupant on Election Day -- they will also hit refresh on the US Congress.

Thirty-four Senate seats and all 435 spots in the House of Representatives are up for grabs.

In the House, members serve a two-year term. Republicans currently have the majority, and Harris's Democrats will be hoping for a turnaround.

In the Senate, 34 seats out of 100 are available, for a six-year term. Republicans are hoping to overturn the narrow Democratic majority.

- 538 -

Welcome to the Electoral College, the indirect system of universal suffrage that governs presidential elections in the United States.

Each state has a different number of electors -- calculated by adding the number of their elected representatives in the House, which varies according to population, to the number of senators (two per state).

Rural Vermont, for example, has just three electoral votes. Giant California, meanwhile, has 54.

There are 538 electors in total scattered across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. To take the White House, a candidate must win 270 votes.

- 774,000 -

The number of poll workers who made sure the 2020 election ran smoothly, according to the Pew Research Center.

There are three types of election staff in the United States.

The majority are poll workers -- recruited to do things like greet voters, help with languages, set up voting equipment, and verify voter IDs and registrations.

Election officials are elected, hired or appointed to carry out more specialized duties such as training poll workers, according to Pew.

Poll watchers are usually appointed by political parties to observe the ballot count -- expected to be particularly contentious this year, thanks to Trump's refusal to agree to unconditionally accept the result.

Many election workers have already spoken to AFP about the pressure and threats they are receiving ahead of the November 5 vote.

- 75 million -

As of November 2, more than 75 million Americans had voted early, according to a University of Florida database.

Most US states permit in-person voting or mail-in voting to allow people to deal with scheduling conflicts or an inability to cast their ballots on election day itself on November 5.

- 244 million -

The number of Americans who will be eligible to vote in 2024, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

How many of those will actually cast their ballot remains to be seen, of course. But the Pew Research Center says that the midterm elections of 2018 and 2022, and the presidential vote of 2020, produced three of the highest turnouts of their kind seen in the United States in decades.

"About two-thirds (66 percent) of the voting-eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election -- the highest rate for any national election since 1900," Pew says on its website.

That translated to nearly 155 million voters, according to the Census Bureau.