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Lebanon and Israel began technical discussions on border demarcation on Wednesday, in the second round of negotiations, which will take place this month in the Naqoura border region in southern Lebanon, under the auspices of the United Nations and mediation. American.
Negotiations began on October 14 of this month, between the two countries, which consider themselves at war and aspire to share oil resources in regional waters, after years of mediation undertaken by Washington, which plays the role of mediator in the conversations.
Two-day technical meeting
“Today’s session is the first technical meeting after the first awareness session and during which the ground rules for negotiation were established,” said Laurie Haitien, director of the Institute for the Governance of Natural Resources in the Middle East and Africa. from North.
The official Lebanese agency stated that the meeting began in the morning and noted that “the Lebanese delegation carried maps and documents showing points of disagreement.
The session will take place at a United Nations Force (UNIFIL) border post in southern Lebanon, in the presence of representatives of the United Nations and the US diplomat, John DeRoucher, who is in charge of facilitating negotiations between the two. parts, which will last for two days.
The negotiations concern a marine area that extends to about 860 square kilometers, according to a map sent in 2011 to the United Nations, and Lebanon later considered it based on erroneous estimates.
The Lebanese state advances in the negotiations, as Haitian explains, “from the beginning of demanding the maximum that can be obtained under the roof of international law and the law of the sea, that is, it wants to go beyond the 860 square kilometers, which it is part of the Karish gas field in the part of Lebanon. ” .
It is not known what the Israeli position will be on this, especially since Karish is an open field and Israel was supposed to start production operations in it next year before there was a delay with the outbreak of the new Corona virus.
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‘Site of vulnerability’
The analysts, in turn, indicated that Lebanon begins the path of demarcation in difficult circumstances with an accelerated economic collapse and the US sanctions that persecute Hezbollah and political officials of allied parties.
Haitian stated that Lebanon “wants to send a signal to the Lebanese, Israeli and American negotiators not to sit at the negotiating table from a position of weakness”, and therefore “broadens the circle of its demands based on legal arguments. “.
Lebanon insists on the purely technical nature of indirect negotiations aimed exclusively at demarcation of borders, while Israel speaks of direct negotiations.
Reuters published images showing an Israeli military alert in the north of the country, as well as patrolling international forces on the Lebanese side, coinciding with the date of the negotiations.
Oil and gas exploration
In 2018, Lebanon signed the first contract to explore gas and oil in two areas of its territorial waters, one of which, known as Block No. 9, is in the part in dispute with Israel. Consequently, Lebanon has no option to operate in this territory except after the borders are demarcated.
The two negotiating delegations hope that progress will be made in the negotiations within a reasonable period of time, which may take months.
Lebanon has always insisted in the past on linking the demarcation of maritime borders with land borders, but the negotiations will focus solely on maritime borders, provided that the demarcation of land borders is discussed, according to the United Nations, within the framework of the periodic tripartite meeting that has been held for years.
“Voices that speak of peace”
From northern Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Tuesday, while inspecting training on the army’s preparations for a possible Hezbollah attack, “I hear positive voices coming from Lebanon and even talking about peace with Israel and working with us on issues such as maritime borders. ”
Gantz’s position came after statements by Claudine Aoun, daughter of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, in a television interview in which she said that she was not opposed to her country reaching a peace agreement with Israel, but “after get all the problems solved. “
He listed among these problems “the problem of demarcation of the border, the problem of Palestinian refugees and another important issue is natural resources: water, oil and gas that we will rely on to advance our economy.”
