NEWSRAEL: This picture and the whole shameless "soap-opera" around this deal will teach you something about the Middle East. First of all - Egypt does NOT have natural gas for this project, but it does buy gas from Israel. Lebanon needs natural gas, but Lebanon cannot even talk with Israelis, much less buy gas from them, and that is not even mentioning the Israel-hating terrorist Hezbollah.
So - instead of a short, easier to build, easier to guard and manage gas line from Israel to Lebanon, it will go around Israel into Jordan, into war-torn Syria and from there to Lebanon. Each country will add their own prices and, in the end, will be much more expensive - and Israel "laughs all the way to the bank".
Today, a conference of the energy and fuel ministers of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan was held in Jordan to propel the project to which the United States is pushing - transporting Egyptian gas to Lebanon to help supply electricity to Lebanese residents without the need for Iranian fuel.
The Syrian minister announced that the Arab gas line would be reactivated to transport Egyptian gas to Lebanon and that the Syrian president had instructed it to do so to help Lebanon.
The Jordanian minister has announced that each country will bear the cost of using the gas pipeline infrastructure in its territory.
The Lebanese minister clarified that Lebanon will work with the World Bank to obtain financing for the purchase of Egyptian gas.
All parties agreed on an outline for starting the project.
We will mention again that Egypt buys natural gas from Israel ... lucky that it does not pass to Lebanon via China (: