Lebanon denies it plans to buy gas from Israel

Lebanon has denied that it will be importing gas from enemy state Israel in a U.S.-brokered deal. 

Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported Saturday that the fuel would be shipped to Lebanon via Jordan and Syria.  The arrangement is intended to provide Lebanon with an alternative to aid from Iran, the news program said. 

Lebanon is suffering from an energy crisis that’s caused long and frequent electricity outages. But such an agreement would be politically explosive in Lebanon, and its Energy Ministry denied the Israeli news report. It said natural gas will come exclusively from Egypt via Jordan and Syria.

According to the Channel 12 news report, in order for the deal to advance, the U.S. had to make an exception to the sanctions it has slapped on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.