Nationwide power outage in Syria due to malfunctions, energy minister’s spokesperson says

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DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syria suffered a nationwide power outage on Tuesday night due to malfunctions at several points in the national grid, a spokesperson from the energy ministry told Reuters.

The spokesperson said technical teams were addressing the issues.

The power returned to the provinces of Homs, Hama and Tartous and will gradually return to the rest of the governorates, the state news agency SANA quoted the director general of the public establishment for transmitting and distributing electricity as saying later in the day.

Syria suffers from severe power shortages, with state-supplied electricity available for only two or three hours a day in most areas. Damage to the grid means that generating or supplying more power is only part of the problem.

Damascus used to receive the bulk of its oil for power generation from Iran, but supplies have been cut off since Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led the ouster of Tehran-allied former president Bashar al-Assad in December.

The former interim government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa has pledged to quickly ramp up power supply, partly by importing electricity from Jordan and using floating power barges.

Damascus also said it will receive two electricity-generating ships from Turkey and Qatar to boost energy supplies.

(Reporting by Khalil Ashawi in Damascus, writing by Jaidaa TahaEditing by Nick Zieminski)