Lebanese Ministers to Make Highest-level Visit to Syria in Years
Voice of America
BEIRUT - A delegation from Lebanon's caretaker government will visit Syria on Saturday in the highest-level visit in years, aiming to pave the way for a U.S.-backed plan to ease a power crisis in Lebanon by transmitting electricity via the Syrian grid.
Lebanese government officials have mostly avoided Syria since war began there in 2011 as Beirut adopted a policy of staying out of regional conflicts, even as the heavily armed Shiite group Hezbollah fought in support of Damascus. Lebanon is suffering energy shortages that have forced even essential services including hospitals to shut down or scale back operations. The crisis is the result of a wider financial meltdown that has devastated the economy since 2019. The delegation, to be led by the deputy prime minister and defense minister, Zeina Akar, will discuss the plan by which Egyptian gas will be used to generate electricity in Jordan that will then be transmitted via Syria, a Lebanese official said.A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's rocket launch during a news program at a bus terminal in Seoul, South Korea, May 27, 2024. FILE - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks to reporters in Colombo, July 29, 2023. FILE - A TV screen shows a report of North Korea's spy satellite into orbit with its third launch attempt this year with an image of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 22, 2023.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.