Report: Israel and Lebanon resume maritime border talks

The Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper reported that negotiations between Israel and Lebanon regarding the disputed maritime borders will resume next week. According to the report, American representatives, including the US ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, told Lebanese President Michel Aoun that Israel agreed to return to the talks next Tuesday. Aoun was due to meet senior military figures who were managing the talks, which were suspended last fall due to opposition from Hezbollah. Aoun is studying, according to the report, transferring the management of the talks to a new delegation that includes specialists in the maritime field, the military and politicians. Hezbollah opposes such a change in order not to legitimize what could be considered direct talks with Israel. A US diplomatic source told “Globus” this week that according to their estimates, despite Hezbollah’s opposition, talks could be resumed with international mediation over disputed economic waters between Israel and Lebanon. The source said that European countries, including France, were pressuring Lebanon to resume talks as one of the conditions for providing an economic aid package to countries mired in an imminent severe economic crisis from the monetary collapse. The American diplomat said that Israel showed its willingness to resume negotiations after Lebanese President Aoun refused to sign an order to annex large areas of the Mediterranean Sea, which was announced by ministers in his interim government. Earlier this month, Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport Michel Najjar said the country had issued an order to annex 1,430 square kilometers of economic waters in the Mediterranean. Within the ostensibly annexed area is the Israeli Karish gas field. At the time that Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said, Lebanon seems to prefer ending the talks rather than trying to reach consensual solutions. Unilateral Lebanese measures, of course, will be answered with parallel measures by Israel. ”He did not give further details. Then the United States entered the picture. The US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale came to Beirut last week, among other people they met. President Aoun Hill on the necessity of resuming talks with the United States as a mediator and on the basis of the previously discussed dispute. Hill refused to declare Lebanese annexation. Related articles Lebanon extending its sovereignty over the disputed waters with Israel Israel rejects the Lebanese demands and regarding the Tanin gas fields in Karish. The fairness of the Lebanese prosecution under international law, but he made it clear that his country would accept international mediation and the opinion of international experts who would work to demarcate the borders, adding that he could not in any way sign the annexation order that requires full government approval, which means that there are voices of opposition. The Lebanese “call of the homeland” It is important to continue negotiations so that the Israelis do not have an excuse to explore for gas in Lebanese waters. Israel believes that the talks, which are held It stood last November, it will eventually resume, because Lebanon is on the verge of bankruptcy, and the development of a gas field, which was postponed due to this dispute, among other things, could help save the country’s economy. However, work on the Karish gas field did not stop. Posted by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – April 29, 2021 © Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2021