Syrian Air adds 2 weekly flights between Cairo, Damascus

CAIRO – 3 August 2022: Syrian Air announced Wednesday introducing Damascus-Cairo-Damascus lights on Tuesdays and Fridays raising the number of flights between the two Arab capitals to seven per week.

Egypt, Lebanon and Syria signed Tuesday an agreement to transport 650 million cubic meters of gas annually from Egypt to Lebanon via Syria, in a ceremony held at the Lebanese Ministry of Energy in Beirut.

Under the agreement, the gas will be pumped through a pipeline to the Deir Ammar power station in northern Lebanon, where it can add about 450 megawatts to the grid, equivalent to about four additional hours of electricity per day.

Allthough an agreement between the Arab Gas Pipeline countries "Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon" was reached in September 2021, to deliver Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon via Jordan and Syria, the signing of the deal has been postponed for several months as Egypt was waiting for the US approval to have guarantees that the US Caesar Act’s financial sanctions on Syria would not negatively impact the deal because the Egyptian gas shall pass through Syrian and Jordanian territories to reach Lebanon.

Lebanon suffers from power outages of up to 20 hours a day, and has been facing economic and political problems for years, exacerbated by the explosion of the Port of Beirut and the outbreak of the coronavirus, causing financial crises that prevented its ability to import major commodities, including the fuel necessary to operate power stations.

The Arab Gas Pipeline project was implemented in three phases, the first from Al-Arish to Aqaba, the second from Aqaba to the Rehab region in northern Jordan and then to the Syrian border, and the third stage inside Syrian territory to the city of Homs.

The export of Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon via Jordan began in December 2009, until it was stopped in 2011.

Additional reporting by Hanan Mohamed