Strong controversy in Lebanon after Syria's agreement to deliver oxygen to the land of the cedar
In the Covid intensive care unit of the Rafic Hariri public hospital in Beirut (illustrative image).
© Noé Pignède / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to send 75 tons of oxygen to Lebanon, facing a risk of shortage, at the request of Lebanese Minister of Health Hamad Hassan, who made a rare visit to Damascus on Wednesday .
This affair sparked a heated controversy in Lebanon.
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With our correspondent in Beirut,
Paul Khalifeh
Syria has promised to send to Lebanon 75 tons of oxygen by Saturday, the time that a ship, immobilized by a storm which hits the country, can unload its cargo and supply the market;
25 tonnes have already been delivered on Wednesday.
The amount of oxygen available in Lebanon is barely enough for a day, while intensive care units are almost saturated with a thousand patients on artificial ventilators, according to Minister of Health Hamad Hassan.
This affair has revived the deep differences in the country on the relevance of a normalization of relations with Syria, desired by one part of the Lebanese and rejected by another.
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See also:
Coronavirus: in Lebanon, reopening of bars and restaurants as part of deconfinement
The president of the private hospital union Sleiman Haroun denied any oxygen shortage, stressing that “
two factories produce this material in Lebanon
”.
But the vice-president of one of the biggest factories in the country, Khaled Hadla, assured that local production was insufficient and that Lebanon imported part of its needs from Syria, before the country limited its exports to supply its own market.
Farès Souhaid, a former anti-Syrian deputy, wrote in a tweet addressed to President Bashar al-Assad: "
We do not want your oxygen… Our air is different from yours
".
His comment sparked a heated debate on social networks.
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