Agencies
ISTANBUL
Two electricity-generating ships from Qatar and Türkiye are heading to Syria to boost energy supplies hit by damage to infrastructure during Bashar Assad regime’s rule, the state news agency said Tuesday.
More than 13 years of civil war hammered Syria’s power stations and energy pipelines, leading to power outages that can drag on for more than 20 hours a day.
The two ships would provide a total of 800 megawatts of electricity, around half of the current total output, Khaled Abu Dai, director-general of the national electricity company, told Syrian News Agency (SANA) on Tuesday.
“Work is ongoing to secure power lines to transport the electricity from the docking location of the two ships,” Abu Dai said, without stating where that would be.
“The extent of damage to the generation and transformation stations and electrical connection lines during the period of the former regime is very large; we are seeking to rehabilitate (them) in order to transmit energy,” he added.
However, he did not say when Syria would receive the two ships.
The announcement came a day after the United States issued a sanctions exemption for transactions with governing institutions in Syria for six months after the end of Assad’s rule to try to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance. The exemption allows some energy transactions and personal remittances to Syria until July 7. The action did not remove any sanctions.
