BEIRUT: Three US Senators have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to consider allowing Lebanon to purchase electricity from Syria, an act that is currently sanctionable under the Caesar Act.

Pointing to the humanitarian impacts of the Aug. 4 port explosion, fuel shortages causing electricity and communications blackouts, and Lebanons ongoing economic crisis, senators Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Murphy and Tim Kaine requested that the Trump administration temporarily exempt the county from sanctions on importing electricity from Syria.

Lebanons power grid is connected only to Syria, and electricity imports from other regional states must occur through Syria, the three senators wrote in a letter addressed to Pompeo Monday.

The Lebanese government has previously attempted to purchase electricity through other states such as Egypt and Jordan, however the Syrian government has not allowed these agreements to come to fruition, the three continued.

They meanwhile called on the Trump administration to support the reconstruction of Lebanons energy grid, noting that Lebanon is left with few options to meet its immediate energy needs other than turn to Syria.

Lebanon imports a large amount of electricity from Syria in order to try and plug the large gap in supply and demand that Lebanon's aged power plants cannot meet.

Peak demand is estimated at 3,600MW, which results in a supply shortage of 1,600MW, energy consultant Jessica Obeid wrote recently in a paper for the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies.

Many people turn to private generators during the daily blackouts that this summer lasted as long as 22 hours in some parts of the country. But with the Lebanese pound now devalued by around 80 percent on the black market, many can no longer afford to use generators, which rely on imported fuel.

The senators in their letter said the Lebanese government had already requested a waiver for electricity purchases under the Caesar Syria Civil Protection Act, and pointed to the precedence in waiving similar sanctions for Iraqi purchases of Iranian energy.

The Caesar act came into force in June and aims to economically isolate President Bashar Assad's regime through sanctions.

US State Department Special Envoy for Syria Joel D. Rayburn in July said that the US would not grant exemptions to the act on the basis of friendship.

"Electricity from the Assad regime is not going to save the Lebanese electricity sector," Rayburn said at the time, describing it as a "bandage that is just going to create more problems."

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