Prime Minister Dr. Nawaf Salam held the regular ministerial meeting at the Grand Serail this morning. After the meeting, the Minister of Information, Dr. Paul Morcos, stated the following about the conclusions of the meeting: At the beginning of the meeting, and regarding his visit to Iraq, His Excellency the President began his speech by noting that “the government is always ready to take advantage of all options available at any moment, to achieve the goals of economic advancement, especially in the areas of connectivity and strategic integration.” In this context, President Salam contacted His Excellency the Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Asaad Al-Shaibani, upon his return from Iraq, stressing the importance of strengthening regional connectivity for the mutual benefit of all. He added: There was a discussion in the meeting about linking Lebanon as a result of this visit to the Basra-Tripoli line, given the common interest and Lebanon’s large capacity for storage, with the intention to establish a new refinery, all in light of Iraq’s determination to increase oil production. There was also discussion about forming a Lebanese-Iraqi technical committee to discuss these issues and move forward with them, especially on the issue of cooperation between the two countries regarding the special economic zone. There is a government intention to rehabilitate tanks to facilitate land transportation of oil, as is happening with the port of Baniyas. A second topic that was addressed was strengthening the electrical supply in cooperation with the Turkish authorities. The third topic is activating Internet services, and the last topic is consumer protection, in addition to other miscellaneous topics.