ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey aims to provide electricity to Syria and strengthen its power infrastructure, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar was quoted on Friday as saying, adding that Ankara may also work with Syria’s new leadership on oil and natural gas.
After backing the Syrian rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad this month after a 13-year civil war, Turkey has emerged as one of the main power brokers in its southern neighbour, and has vowed to help rebuild the country.
Ankara was one of the first countries to reopen its embassy in Damascus, while its foreign minister and intelligence chief both met with Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa there.
Bayraktar, who met with Turkish media representatives, said a delegation, which he may chair, was planning to travel to Syria on Saturday to discuss electricity transmission, infrastructure and other matters.
“We must very rapidly provide electricity to parts of Syria that do not have electricity, with imports in the initial phase. In the medium-term, we also plan to increase the set electricity power, the production capacity there,” Hurriyet newspaper cited him as saying.
“There is a need for everything in Syria. We will work on the infrastructure master plan with the leaders there,” he said, adding Turkey could also send electricity to Lebanon via Syria.
Bayraktar said Ankara was working on using Syria’s oil and natural gas resources for the country’s reconstruction, as production of both had significantly fallen during the war.
“There are many topics that need to mature, from forming an oil pipeline from Syria to Turkey, merging this with our Iraq-Turkey pipeline,” he was cited as saying, adding Ankara and Damascus could collaborate on oil and natural gas in the near future.
Separately, Bayraktar said Turkey was ready to cooperate with other countries on energy in Somalia, where a Turkish drill ship is carrying out hydrocarbon exploration, added that “there are offers”.
(Reporting by Can Sezer; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Daren Butler, Kirsten Donovan)
