Lebanon, Egypt and Syria signed an agreement Tuesday to import Egyptian gas to a power plant in northern Lebanon through Syria. The deal would increase badly needed electricity supplies in Lebanon, which is suffering under a severe energy crisis and chronic outages.

The agreement still needs to be signed off on by the World Bank, which is supposed to finance the process. Also, U.S. assurances are needed that the countries involved will not be targeted by American sanctions imposed on Syria, Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayad said.

Egypt had agreed to supply Lebanon with natural gas to its power plants through Jordan and Syria. Syrian and Lebanese experts have finished renovation work on the pipeline, which has been ready for months.

Fayad had said that about 650 million cubic meters (22.95 billion cubic feet) of gas will be brought to Lebanon through the pipeline annually to the Deir Ammar power station in the north. He added that the amount will lead to the production of 450 megawatts of electricity adding four hours of electricity supplies a day.

“The agreement signed today crowns hard work that began nine months ago,” Fayad said, adding that “we hope that all the obstacles have been removed in order to guarantee funding from the World Bank.”

The Syrian government is under U.S. and Western sanctions for its role in the country’s 11-year war, which has left nearly half a million dead and disappeared and nearly half of the population displaced.

As part of the deal, Syria will not get any cash but will take a small amount of the gas.

“We are looking forward to get the final guarantees from the United States, especially regarding sanctions, therefore the support of the United States and the international community is essential,” Fayad said.