Lebanon’s government on Monday deemed any action outside the framework of US-brokered talks to delimit the maritime border with Israel “unacceptable”, two days after Hezbollah launched three marches towards the Karish gas field.
In a statement issued after his meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said, “Any action outside of the state’s responsibility and diplomatic context is unacceptable and unwarranted. It exposes the dangers.”
He stressed that the ongoing negotiations had “reached advanced stages” with the efforts of US mediator Amos Hochstein and called on all parties to “show a sense of high national responsibility and adhere to the above”. The government is lagging behind in the negotiation process.”
US-brokered talks between the two sides that began in 2020 stalled in May last year due to disagreements over the area of the disputed territory.
At its inception, the negotiations were to be limited to an area of about 860 square kilometers of sea whose boundaries were delimited by line 23 based on a map Lebanon sent to the United Nations in 2011, but which Lebanon has since considered. The map was based on incorrect estimates, and the survey was requested over an area of 1,430 square kilometers, which included parts of the Karish field known as Line 29.
After the gas rig arrived in the disputed area, Lebanon invited Hochstein to resume negotiations and offered a new opportunity to demarcate the Karish field, which is not under discussion. Hochstein took the Lebanon offer to Israel. (AFP)
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