Lebanon, Israel hold maritime border talks
NAQURA, Lebanon: Lebanon and Israel held unprecedented talks under UN and US auspices on Wednesday to settle a maritime border dispute and clear the way for oil and gas exploration. The talks mark a “first step in the thousand-mile march towards the demarcation” of the sea frontier, Brigadier General Bassam Yassin, the head of Lebanon’s delegation, was quoted as saying in an army statement released after the session ended. “Based on the higher interests of our country, we are looking to achieve a pace of negotiations that would allow us to conclude this dossier within a reasonable time.” Following years of US shuttle diplomacy, Lebanon and Israel this month said they had agreed to begin Un-brokered negotiations, in what Washington hailed a “historic” agreement. The talks, held at a UN peacekeeping force base in the Lebanese border town of Naqura, lasted for around one hour and came weeks after Bahrain and the UAE became the first states to establish relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. This has prompted suspicions that the flurry of Us-sponsored diplomacy relating to Israel is linked to President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. The second round of negotiations will be held on October 28, a Lebanese military source and the official National News Agency (NNA) said. The Naqura talks, which focused exclusively on the disputed sea frontier, came at a sensitive time as Lebanon, battered by multiple crises, hopes to continue exploring for oil and gas in a part of the Mediterranean also claimed by Israel. Security was tight, with roads in the area blocked by UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops, and helicopters flying overhead. US envoy David Schenker facilitated the opening session along with US ambassador to Algeria John Desrocher, who was the mediator in the talks. Israel said there would be “direct negotiations”, something Lebanese officials have denied.
Israel sent a six-member team, including the director-general of its energy ministry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, and the head of the army’s strategic division. Lebanon’s four-member delegation comprised two army officers, an official, and a maritime border law expert. Israel and Lebanon have no diplomatic relations and Wednesday’s talks were a rare official interaction. Lebanon insists that the negotiations are purely technical and don’t involve any soft political normalisation with Israel. Lebanon’s main parties Hizbullah and
Amal issued a statement late Tuesday bemoaning the presence of civilians in the Lebanese negotiating team. “This harms Lebanon’s position and interests... and amounts to giving in to the Israeli logic that seeks some form of normalisation,” they said. Lebanon, mired in its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, is looking to settle the maritime border dispute so it can press its offshore quest for oil and gas. In February 2018, Lebanon signed its first contract for drilling in two blocks in the Mediterranean with a consortium comprising energy giants Total, ENI, and Novatek. Exploration of one of the blocks is more controversial as part of it is located in an 860-square-kilometre area claimed by both Israel and Lebanon. A senior source at Israel’s energy ministry said that the border dispute “can be concluded hopefully in a few months time.” “This is a limited effort to resolve a well-defined, limited problem,” he said. “We have no illusions. Our aim is not to create here some kind of normalisation process.” — AFP or peace