• Lebanon
  • February 3, 2010
  • 3 minutes read

Lebanon looking to Egypt for economic, energy deals

Lebanon looking to Egypt for economic, energy deals

 CAIRO: Egypt and Lebanon are looking at boosting economic and energy relations after Egypt’s Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif welcomed his Lebanese counterpart Saad Hariri to Cairo on Wednesday aimed at discussing the new possibilities. According to Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, the talks are likely to end with a series of memorandums of understanding to be revealed when Hariri meets with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday.

Complete Details of that meeting have yet to be released.

Cairo’s government-run MENA news agency reported that Egyptian Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy was also present at the talks and he was reported to have said that the talks also included how to increase Egyptian investment in Lebanese energy projects.

Lebanon’s power grid is currently straining to keep up with the country’s demand and the country hopes Egypt will help bolster the country’s needs.

Beirut often experience blackouts.

A pipeline linking Egypt’s natural gas refineries with the Lebanese city of Tripoli came online in October, with supplies being used at a nearby power plant, Germany’s DPA news agency reported.

Following one-on-one talks between the two prime ministers, the Lebanese foreign, economy and information ministers met with the Egyptian ministers of economy, information, international cooperation and manpower, MENA also reported.

Hariri arrived in Egypt on Tuesday, for his latest stop in a weeklong tour that also saw him arrive in France and Turkey.

He also arrived hours after an Egyptian State Security Prosecutor asked for the death penalty in the case of 26 men, including Lebanese and Palestinian nationals, accused of plotting attacks in Egypt on behalf of the Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah.

Hezbollah and Hariri are traditional political rivals, but now govern together as part of an “all-party” government.

In Beirut on Wednesday, Ahmed Fatfat, a member of Hariri’s parliamentary bloc, told Lebanon’s New TV that he did not know whether Hariri would play a mediating role in the Egyptian court case.

“The important thing is that they have a fair trial,” Fatfat said.

BM