At the end of the week the headlines screamed about a general blackout in Lebanon. It was quite a bluff. Even on normal days, the state of Lebanon provides two hours of electricity a day and most of the economy relies mainly on generators.
What actually happened? Officials in Lebanon claim that this is an "artificial crisis" created by the country's authorities as a sort of SOS call addressed to the Arab world, against the background of the winds of war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The call to "save" Lebanon did not interest the Arab world. No rich Gulf state has offered to help Lebanon in its plight.
The only one that responded was Algeria, which sent 30,000 tons of fuel. If you think that Algeria is doing this out of Arab solidarity, you are wrong.
Sources in Lebanon claim that the last country they wanted to help them is Algeria. why? Four years ago, an affair exploded that shook the relations between Lebanon and Algeria.
It turned out that Algeria, which was a fuel supplier to Lebanon, sent there fuel waste and not fuel. "It's garbage, not fuel," said a Lebanese source.
Beirut made arrests of officials who were involved in importing the defective Algerian fuel. Now in Lebanon they believe that Algeria wants Lebanon to close the investigation file in this case and therefore "volunteered" to send fuel now.
Photo: Reuters