Lebanese head of state Joseph Aoun (left) speaking with Minister of Telecommunications Charles Hage on May 29, 2025. (Credit: @LBpresidency/X)
BEIRUT — Prime Minister Nawaf Salam received Sam Turner, Director of Licensing and Development for the Starlink internet service company, on Thursday, in the presence of the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, according to a statement from the Grand Serail on X.
Discussions focused on negotiations between Starlink and the Lebanese Telecoms Ministry, intending to integrate Lebanon into this network, which supplies 136 countries. Starlink is proposed by American billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX company.
Lebanese Telecoms Minister Charles Hage also met Turner on Thursday, with whom he discussed “ways of enabling Lebanon to join Starlink, while preserving national interests, with the aim of making the country a communications hub, which will help attract international companies and investors,” according to a statement relayed by the state-run National News Agency (NNA).
Earlier in the day, President Joseph Aoun met with Hage regarding ongoing projects within the Ministry and the potential for cooperation with the American billionaire Elon Musk's company SpaceX to activate its Starlink internet service in Lebanon.
Last November, the former telecoms minister, Johnny Corm, indicated to L'Orient Today that the adoption of the Starlink system had been discussed with economic bodies but was hindered by two major obstacles: "one security-related and the other commercial."
Corm specified that over the course of negotiations with the American company, "the discourse changed, initially on pricing and previously negotiated discounts, but also on certain technical aspects." The conditions laid out by SpaceX were that Lebanon would need to install servers in Qatar or Germany, which would be contrary to law No. 81 governing personal data protection.