A couple sits on a bench on the corniche in Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, on Feb. 23, 2025. (Credit: Stéphanie Khouri/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Iraq's oil ministry is considering exporting oil through Lebanon's Tripoli port and will study reviving the dormant Iraq-Syria oil export pipeline, it said on Tuesday. The ministry plans to form a joint committee to assess the pipeline's condition.
The announcement came during a visit by Syria's energy minister to Baghdad to discuss cooperation in oil, gas and energy.
Iraq dispatched a high-level delegation to Damascus in April to assess the feasibility of reviving the Iraq–Syria oil pipeline, a move Baghdad is counting on to diversify export routes amid expanding production capacity.
Following a meeting last week in Baghdad with Lebanese Labor Minister Mohammad Haidar, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani announced he had approved a series of support measures for Lebanon, but did not provide any further details. The meeting covered several topics, including Lebanon’s reconstruction and the expected role of Iraq in this process.
Last May, at the Arab League summit, Sudani announced that $20 million in aid would be granted to Lebanon for reconstruction, a contribution that remains modest in the face of the $11 billion needed, according to a study published last winter by the World Bank.
