Jordan’s, Lebanon’s, Egypt’s, and Syria’s Energy Ministers met in Amman and agreed on a “road map” to address Lebanon’s electricity problem. They talked of a US-backed initiative to carry Egyptian gas via Syrian territory to power Lebanon’s power plants, but they didn’t provide a date for the project.

In the last weeks, Lebanon’s decades-long power outages have become a component of the Middle East’s political battle between the US and Iran.

Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, described the meeting as “preliminary”. He said the countries needed to agree on “the readiness of the infrastructure” to pump the gas.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, he said: “We have to check on the network and its auxiliaries. Contractual points should be also reviewed.”

“We put a road map and after doing the reviews we hope that pumping occurs at the earliest opportunity.”

Also commenting the Jordanian Energy Minister, Hala Zawati, said the pipeline is “almost ready” to transport the gas.

US officials have also stated that the project is preferable to Iranian efforts to supply Lebanon with electricity-generating fuel. Jordan and Egypt announced last month that they were willing to supply Lebanon with gas and electricity, thanks to US support.

The Jordanian and Egyptian promises follow Hezbollah’s announcement last month that Iran would supply Lebanon with electrical generation fuel. Two Iranian gas oil-laden ships are said to be in the Red Sea on their route to Lebanon, perhaps in violation of US sanctions against Iran.

Raymond Ghajar, Lebanon’s Energy Minister, said the government aims to acquire enough Egyptian gas to run a 450-megawatt power plant in Deir Ammar on the Mediterranean, which would account for around 15% of Lebanon’s generation capacity.

If realised, the project would mark the Syrian regime’s first substantial integration into a regional endeavour since it was isolated by the Arab League and the international community in 2011 for its assault on protests against the Assad family’s five-decade rule. With Lebanon’s economic crisis increasing, state electricity has been almost non-existent for the majority of this year.

Deir Ammar is Lebanon’s only major power plant connected to the Arab Gas Pipeline, which connects Egypt and Syria via Lebanon and Jordan.