Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday met with an Iraqi delegation and discussed the extension of a deal that would supply state-owned power provider Electricité du Liban with Iraqi fuel, the prime minister’s office reported via its Twitter account.
Here’s what we know:
• Mikati announced last Thursday that Iraq has agreed to extend a deal that supplies EDL with fuel “for a period of one year, under the same conditions that were previously followed.”
• In July 2021, Lebanon signed a deal with Iraq to receive Iraqi oil through a complicated arrangement under which Lebanon would swap the Iraqi heavy fuel, which is not suited to run Lebanese power plants, for other fuel from third parties that could be used in the plants. The 2021 deal was meant to last one year to help Lebanon cope with its electricity crisis. In return, Lebanon would provide Iraq with unspecified “services.”
• The Iraqi delegation also met earlier today with caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayad. Fayad later on met with Mikati, according to the prime minister’s office’s Twitter account.