The Secretary-General of the Lebanese-Syrian Supreme Council, Nasri Khoury, said on Saturday that Syria had agreed to a Lebanese request for assistance in passing Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity through Syrian territory.

Khoury added, during press statements after a meeting of Syrian-Lebanese talks in Damascus, which was chaired by Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Faisal Miqdad and for Lebanon by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense and Acting Foreign Affairs in the caretaker government Zina Aker, that “there is a previous agreement to import gas from Egypt through Syria and Jordan to Lebanon; But the Egyptian side stopped supplying Lebanon with gas, and today we are working to reactivate it.”

Lebanon is suffering from an energy shortage that has forced even basic services, including hospitals, to close or reduce their operations, and this crisis is caused by a broader financial collapse that has hit the economy hard since 2019.

US sanctions on Damascus are a complicating factor in any effort to help Lebanon via Syria, but members of Congress who visited Beirut last week said Washington was considering ways to urgently address these obstacles.

US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea also said that there is a will to implement the plan.

Khoury pointed out that “the visit has political and other implications related to the issue of gas and the reactivation of cooperation between the two countries.”

He pointed out that “Syria has always been positive in all its directions and responded despite the wounds it sustained due to a number of situations, but it was above its wounds and was keen to cooperate with and help Lebanon.”

Khoury indicated that the visit is the first for an official Lebanese delegation since 2011, and its goal is to discuss the issue of leasing gas from Egypt to Lebanon, via Syria, to produce electric power. He explained that “the duration of the visit is one day, and it is expected that certain agreements will be reached.”