Lebanon’s General Security Chief, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, stressed that the final agreement to import oil from Iraq will follow the meetings held by specialists from both countries to study the details of the deal. In an interview with the Iraqi news network, General Ibrahim denied any barriers hindering the agreement, adding that the Iraqi cabinet will approve the oil deal with Lebanon after the specialists finish discussing details and confirming the Lebanese, accordingly, would not suffer from power outage. Caretaker Energy minister Raymond Ghajar announced on December 21 that Lebanon would start importing fuel oil from Iraq to cover the requirements of power stations in 2021.

The announcement came after a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Ihsan Abdul Jabbar in Baghdad.

For his part, Jabbar said that an agreement has been reached with Lebanon to start fuel export supplies to Beirut in 2021 using global prices.