Syrian Electricity Minister Ghassan al-Zamil attends a news conference with Jordan's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Saleh Ali Hamed Al-Kharabsheh and Lebanon's Energy Minister Walid Fayad in Amman, Jordan on Oct. 28, 2021. (Credit: Jehad Shelbak/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Syrian Energy Minister Ghassan al Zamel said Tuesday after discussing the awaited Jordanian energy deal with President Aoun at the Presidential Palace that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “has given his order to facilitate the transferring of electricity to Lebanon,” the president’s Twitter account reported.
Here’s what we know:
• Lebanon is expected to sign an energy deal with Jordan on Wednesday that would import electricity from Jordan through Syria. The deal still awaits reforms to Lebanon’s electricity sector, a key condition of securing financing for the project from the World Bank.
• Speaking from the Presidential Palace Tuesday, Energy Minister Walid Fayad claimed that Lebanon is going to receive electricity from Jordan “after two months.”
• Fayad had claimed that the Jordanian electricity deal would add two hours per day to Lebanon’s state electricity supply.
• The electricity deal is part of an initiative spearheaded by the United States that is aimed at alleviating Lebanon’s electricity crisis. The second part of the deal involves importing gas from Egypt through Jordan and then swapping it in Syria with Syrian gas and providing it to Lebanon to operate its power plants.