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Lebanon has received offers from 21 companies to rebuild a conflict-damaged military air base and convert it into a civilian airport.
Quleiat airport near the Syrian border in North Lebanon was built by the French army nearly nine decades ago during the colonial rule just before World War 11.
Lebanon, which is suffering from the worst financial crisis in its modern history, had tried to reconstruct the facility over the past 20 years but its attempts have been blocked by the civil strife and persistent Israeli attacks on the airport and surrounding areas.
“21 companies have applied to rebuild the airport and we are now awaiting approval by Parliament to go ahead with the project...but the current political and security developments are obstructing this,” Lebanon’s finance minister Yassine Jaber said on the Lebanese MTV channel at the weekend.
Jaber said Lebanon is waiting to receive a $250 million loan from the World Bank to fund rehabilitation of its ailing power sector and other projects, including Quleiat which has been named Rene Mouawad airport after the assassinated president.
(Writing by N Saeed; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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