LebaneseIsraeli maritime border negotiations last 5 hours
Lebanon and Israel resumed US-mediated talks over their disputed maritime border on Tuesday with more than five hours of discussions at a UN peacekeeping base near the southern Lebanese town of Al-Naqoura.
The resumption of negotiations follows a five-month hiatus in efforts to clear the way for offshore oil and gas exploration. Washington has described the latest talks, to be brokered by US diplomat John Desrocher, as “a positive step toward a longawaited resolution.”
A previous round of negotiations was suspended last November after a dispute over an additional area demanded by Lebanon and its insistence on its right to its entire maritime wealth.
The US delegation arrived in the Ras Al-Naqoura border crossing in a convoy of cars from Beirut, while the Lebanese military delegation traveled aboard two helicopters. Talks took place amid tight security by the army and the UNIFIL forces from the UN headquarters in Al-Naqoura. President Michel Aoun followed up on negotiations with the caretaker Minister of Defense Zeina Aker in light of the directives he gave to the negotiating delegation at a meeting on Monday.
The US Embassy is expected to issue a statement on Wednesday. Aoun has refused to sign Decree 6433 to amend the borders drawn by the Lebanese army, according to which Lebanon would get 2,290 square km instead of 860 square km. This disputed area is in a potentially gas-rich region.
Washington has described the latest talks, to be brokered by US diplomat John Desrocher, as ‘a positive step toward a longawaited resolution.’
Lebanon sent a map in 2011 to the UN relating to a claim of 860 square km. But it was later found that the map was based on wrong approximations and today Lebanon is demanding an additional area of 1,430 square km that includes parts of the Karish gas field in which a Greek company works for Israel. The current Lebanese proposal is known as Line 29. Israel accused Lebanon of obstructing negotiations by expanding the disputed area. Aoun refused to sign the decree to amend the borders, arguing that this requires a Cabinet decision, but Hassan Diab, the caretaker prime minister, refused to hold a Cabinet session, claiming it would contravene the work of the caretaker government.
Lebanon has returned to the negotiating table against a backdrop of political, economic and financial crisis, and is counting on Israel’s need to resolve the disputed areas to accelerate gas exploration and the exploitation of northern fields, where the bulk of its gas wealth is concentrated. According to a military source, the Lebanese army will begin demarcating the border from point B1 at the last point in Ras Al-Naqoura by land to point 29 in the sea. This demarcation adopts the standards and foundations of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
A Lebanese presidency source said negotiations “will pick up where it left, and we do not accept the line proposed by the Israeli side, and they do not accept ours, so we will see what the mediator proposes.”