Bou Habibs discussion with Mikati: Responding to French proposal for implementation of Resolution 1701

3^min

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Abdallah Bou Habib, announced after he met with Prime Minister Najib Mikati that he discussed with him the response to the French proposal, noting that they "finalize the message we agreed upon, and the points we will address, and hopefully the response will be with the French next week."

In response to a question, Bou Habib said, "Our position is known, and we want a full and comprehensive implementation of Resolution 1701, including Shebaa and Kfarchouba."

He added, "We welcome the French role, and the French have given us these ideas because they are concerned about Lebanon and its safety."

Prime Minister Mikati chaired a meeting attended by the Minister of Energy and Water Walid Fayad, the • Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Manager at Electricité du Liban Kamal Hayek, and the World Bank Country Director for the Middle East Department Jean-Christophe Carret, to discuss the World Bank's projects and investment plans with Lebanon.

Fayad said after the meeting, "We met with Mikati, at the request of the World Bank, to discuss the bank's plans for investment in Lebanon at this stage. During the meeting, the World Bank recorded a positive position regarding the energy and water sector developments."

"The bank has allocated three priority sectors in its strategy, namely energy, water, and digitization, to make the work transparent, fast, efficient, and at a lower cost to improve services," Fayad continued.

Moreover, Fayad pointed out that the World Bank has committed to investing in projects in these sectors with a total of two billion two hundred million US dollars over the next three years, including the renewable energy project that will be invested, which includes three elements:

First: Improving efficiency at Electricité du Liban by reducing losses, installing smart meters, and establishing remote control centers.

Second: Renewable energy is distributed through direct investment by the World Bank in three or four renewable energy stations, each with a capacity of about forty megawatts, which can be increased to about one hundred megawatts through investment from the private sector.

This will allow us to obtain about four hundred additional megawatts of renewable energy.

Third: Technical support, i.e., the institutional transformation of Electricité du Liban, including digital transformation, restructuring, and the required competencies to reconnect distributed renewable energy production centers to the network.

He also mentioned that the World Bank will invest in supporting Electricité du Liban in implementing the recently approved Distributed Renewable Energy Law by the Parliament.

Fayad said, "The encouraging thing is that the World Bank sees positive developments in the energy sector and has announced its commitment to invest in the energy and water sectors. We, in turn, want to implement these projects."