Key decisions from the weekly Cabinet meeting

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam chaired the weekly Cabinet meeting.

After the meeting, Information Minister Paul Morcos said:

"We held our morning meeting, as we do every Monday, in the presence of a number of ministers and under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, to discuss three main topics.

The first topic concerned examining ways to strengthen electricity supply during the summer.

The second topic related to the Prime Minister’s visit to Turkey, during which he stressed the independence of the Lebanese decision-making process in negotiations and the need to expedite the Israeli withdrawal. He also raised with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the issue of the trilateral electricity interconnection between Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon.

He also expressed interest in the memorandum of understanding between Turkey and Saudi Arabia regarding the Hejaz railway, particularly with respect to activating the Tripoli-Homs and Beirut-Damascus lines.

The visit also included discussions on Turkish investments, especially in the field of infrastructure in Lebanon, in addition to reviving the free trade agreement between the two countries. Lebanese ministers are to follow up on these files with their Turkish counterparts, based on the Prime Minister’s request.

The third and final topic concerned the visit of the Minister of Economy and Trade to the Syrian Arab Republic, which the Prime Minister said had begun to yield tangible results following his previous visit to Syria and the launch of the joint Lebanese-Syrian committee.

The Minister of Economy and Trade noted that there are 42 agreements between Lebanon and Syria that will be reviewed by the relevant ministers, each within his or her own sector.

The Economy Minister also explained that his visit to Syria addressed the issue of border crossings, particularly the Masnaa crossing, in terms of reconsidering port and transit procedures and formalities in a way that would help facilitate movement."