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Sunday, October 10, 2021

Israeli natural gas might end up in Lebanon!

The Atlantic Council reports about a convoluted plan t provide Lebanon with much needed fuel - and some of it would be from Israel.

Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian, and Jordanian leaders want to give the beleaguered Lebanon natural gas from Egypt and electricity from Jordan. The gas would travel from Egypt to Jordan to Syria to Lebanon. But all Egyptian gas is mixed with Israeli gas - which means that Lebanon would be using Israeli fuel.

For it to work, the US may have to grant a waiver for the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, which puts sanctions on Syria and would not allow the gas to pass through there. 

The article asks why the US would allow such a waiver without demanding concessions to limit Iranian and Russian influence on the region. It isn't like Hezbollah would give the US any goodwill for facilitating fuel to Lebanon. And Hezbollah certainly aimed to benefit politically from illegally smuggling Iranian fuel through Syria into Lebanon.