Is the US obstructing imports of Egyptian gas, Jordanian electricity?

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At a direct request from the United States, the tripartite meeting that was scheduled last Thursday between the US Ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, the Energy Minister, Walid Fayyad, and representatives of the World Bank was canceled to continue the discussion on importing Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity to Lebanon.

This article was originally published in, translated from the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.

However, Fayyad met with a team from the World Bank on Monday, and the discussion concluded with a request from the bank to appoint a consultant to prepare a program to lower the cost of losses in the electricity sector, similar to what the World Bank recently did in Jordan. A tripartite meeting at this moment would be pointless, the team said.

The World Bank and US officials are constantly adding new conditions

Every time the Energy Ministry and Electricité du Liban (EDL) meet the international requirements, the US officials and the World Bank impose further conditions, creating obstacles that prevent Lebanon from gaining access to an additional 4 hours of power supply.

At the end of last year, the World Bank requested EDL to amend the "cost recovery plan." And the plan was amended and sent to the Bank on December 24, 2022.

Even though Lebanon complied with all requirements, neither the US nor the World Bank reacted.

Moreover, there are no positive indicators except the messages from the US Mediator, Amos Hochstein, who expressed interest in the matter and his intention to settle it.

The dark American tunnel

Therefore, Lebanon is waiting, apparently in vain, for the "US green light" to "exclude Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity from the implications of the Caesar Act."

Despite Fayyad signing a gas import agreement in June 2022 with a representative of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, Egypt received no message to begin operations, except a "comfort letter" from the US Treasury Department.

This letter was not enough for the Egyptian side, which feared losing its position as a gas export hub.

Accordingly, it became clear that Shea's initiative to contact former President Michel Aoun last August to inform him of the project's approval is nothing more than a "US lie."

This was a result of the announcement by Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah that Iranian oil tankers have begun arriving at the port of Banias in preparation for the transfer of Iranian diesel to Lebanon.

Every time there is talk about Iranian support for Lebanon, the lie is repeated.

When the Iranian ambassador officially announced unconditional Iranian oil aid, the caretaker PM, Najib Mikati, immediately contacted Washington to ask about the possibility of sanctions against Lebanon should it accept the support.

And when the answer was no, he halted the aid, which included supplying Lebanon with 600,000 tons of crude oil over five months and Tehran's readiness to build and run power plants.

However, it is obvious from all diplomatic reports that the US administration will never give the required guarantee to start implementing the Egyptian gas importation agreement.

Furthermore, an expert in the Foreign Affairs Committee in the US House of Representatives, conveyed to a diplomat in November 2022 the Republicans' tendency to stand in the way of gas and electricity projects in Lebanon.

The Americans control Lebanon according to what serves their interests.

And the successive Lebanese governments bear responsibility for giving in and working to serve what the US ambassador considers proper rather than the country's interests.

But there have been other examples similar to the one involving the Iranian aid and the Egyptian gas.

Various international offers have come before, including those from the German company Siemens, the American company General Electric, the Italian company Ansaldo, and the Japanese company Mitsubishi. Their offers included soft loans of up to 85% of the project's value with deferred repayment over 10 or 20 years at low interest.

China was also interested in funding and implementing energy generation projects under similar conditions. Additionally, Lebanon was informed in August 2020 that the Chinese CNC company was ready to revive the electricity sector.

These and other projects have been frozen for various reasons, but under the same title: Look for the American.