A possible agreement on gas exploitation between Lebanon and Israel
US envoy Hochstein’s mediation seems to have broken the stalemate on maritime borders, which could have led to conflict. Lebanon gets the area north of Line 23 and the whole of the Qana gas field. But on both sides not everyone is happy about the deal. If he is elected, Netanyahu promises to scrap the agreement. Hezbollah played a role in the background.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Lebanon and Israel are finally about to demarcate the maritime border between the two countries two years after they began indirect talks at Ras Nakoura (southern border) on under the auspices of the United Nations and the United States.
“Lebanon has got its full rights in the Qana field,” said Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab, one of the key layers involved in the talks on this sensitive issue. Bou Saab also insisted that Lebanon's position is "unified".
He was referring to the general feeling that emerged at the end of a meeting at Baabda Palace, the president’s residence, between the head of state, the speaker of the parliament and the Prime Minister, to vet the text of the proposed agreement.
US envoy Amos Hochstein brokered the deal, which US Ambassador Dorothy Shea delivered to the parties. She deemed it very satisfactory".
Under Amos Hochstein's proposal, the area granted to Lebanon will follow the southern edge of the disputed area known as Line 23 but will get entire Qana gas field, which extends south of the line. In exchange, Israel gets the entire Karish gas field.
An intermediate area between Line 23 and a buoy-marked border Israel established off its coast will be placed under UN supervision and serve as a no man's land.
No partnership with Israel
Before the meeting, President Aoun met with the technical committee in charge of the maritime border file at his residence, as well as Anne Guéguen, director of the North Africa and Middle East Department at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.
The president told her that “articles (of the agreement) are still under study" and that clarifications will be made, as a precaution. Ratification of the agreement, he said, will then take place in Ras Nakoura.
Aoun added that French giant Total Energies is supposed to start exploration operations in Lebanese waters, and stressed that "there will be no partnership with the Israeli side."
In this regard, Lebanon said that it would not pay any financial compensation to Israel for the part of the Qana gas field that goes beyond Line 23.
It seems that one of the companies of the Total-ENI consortium in charge of exploration and development of offshore hydrocarbons in Lebanon's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), probably Total, could act as an intermediary and pay the Israeli side.
However, in both Lebanon and Israel, not everyone is happy with the agreement. In Lebanon, some lawmakers deplored the fact that Line 29, which they consider “scientifically and indisputably an acquired Lebanese right”, was ignored. For one of them, Ibrahim Mneimné, Lebanon's rights have been trimmed.
In such circles, there is even talk of an “act of treachery, which sells off the rights of Lebanon without any legal document." Line 29 crosses the Karish gas field, and would therefore have given Lebanon right to part of it.
For some analysts, sticking to this position would have dragged out talks indefinitely and possibly led to war, when it was necessary to "seize the moment" of a market that has become even more strategic for the global economy since the Russian aggression against Ukraine, cognisant of the fact that renewable energy is the future.
In Israel
In Israel, Prime Minister Yair Lapid told the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that Hochstein's proposal on the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel "protects" and "strengthens" the country’s interests.
“For more than ten years, Israel has been trying to reach this agreement. The security of the north (of the country) will be strengthened. The Karish field will come on stream (…) We are not opposed to the development of an additional gas field by Lebanon from which we will receive our fair share,” added Mr Lapid.
However, a few weeks before Israel’s parliamentary election in early November, opposition leader and Likud chief, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, threatened to unilaterally withdraw his country from the agreement if he is elected to form the next government.
“Lapid gives Hezbollah a sovereign territory of the State of Israel with a huge gas field that belongs to you, Israeli citizens,” Netanyahu said Sunday in a video posted on social media.
Since early summer, Hezbollah threatened military action against Israel if it began to extract gas from the Karish field before Lebanon could do the same in its EEZ.
It was in this context that the Walla news site, reputed to be close to Mr Netanyahu, quoted a source as saying that the agreement was a "victory for Nasrallah".
Even in Lebanon, some leaders like Walid Jumblatt are starting to believe that Hezbollah's threats, even if some felt that they were a bluff, finally paid off.
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14/10/2022 18:15
07/10/2022 20:27
