In what turned out to be extraordinary timing, October 3 saw a Western coalition of France’s TotalEnergies and Italy’s Eni, plus Qatar Energy, apply for the second licensing round on oil and gas blocks 8 and 10 in Lebanese waters, while only four days later Palestinian political and military organisation Hamas launched coordinated multi-pronged attacks by land, sea, and air against Israel.
He added at the time that Iranian and Iraqi dispatching centres were fully connected in Baghdad, the power grids were seamlessly interlinked, and that Iran had signed a different three-year co-operation agreement with Iraq “to help the country’s power industry in different aspects”. In Lebanon’s case, the most recent deal was the 22 July renewal of a longstanding agreement for Iraq to provide it with up to 2 million tons of crude oil for a year, plus additional supplies of fuel oil.