Lebanon speaker: US proposal on Lebanon-Israel disputed waters “unacceptable”

Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil, left, meets with US Acting Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield, at the Lebanese foreign ministry, in Beirut. (AP)

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Parliament speaker told a senior US diplomat on Friday that his country rejects current American proposals over the disputed marine border with Israel.
Nabih Berri made the statement after meeting acting Assistant US Secretary of State David Satterfield to discuss the offshore oil-rich Block 9. 
But Lebanon appeared to have returned to its hard line over the proposal made in 2013 by a US diplomat that would give Lebanon around two thirds and Israel around one-third of the triangular area of around 860 square km.
“What is proposed is unacceptable,” Berri said, referring to the Frederick Hof naval line.
When asked about what was raised in the meeting, Ali Hamdan, an advisor to Berri, told Arab News: “We prefer to remain silent about the ideas put forward. Hof plan is unacceptable.”
Satterfield later visited Prime Minister Saad Hariri and held another meeting with Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.
Lebanese Foreign Ministry sources told Arab News that “what is being said about a US proposal to share the disputed block is inaccurate, and the issue is far more complicated.” The sources added that “the American side is trying to crystallize a new proposal regarding the area in which Israel claims to have rights.”
The source said that as well as rejecting the Hof line Lebanon still adheres to its claim to all the sovereign, oil and gas rights of the area, but said the government was keeping an “open mind” to the US ideas being worked on.
The US company Noble Energy discovered in 2009 large oil and gas reserves in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean in the territorial waters of Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Israel. The area was divided into blocks.
Block 9 is located in the south and its next to the border of the Israeli territorial waters.
Lebanon sent documents and maps proving its ownership of the area to the UN but Israel continued to dispute the boundary.
In Dec. 2017, Lebanon granted licenses for the exploration of oil in Blocks 4 and 9 for the French company Total, Italian ENI, and the Russian Novatek.
This angered Israel due to the sensitivity of the location of this block.
In 2012, Frederick Hof pledged that the US administration would convince Israel of the temporary solution that would not hinder the interest of the Israeli and Lebanese sides in starting to explore their gas and oil resources.
In 2013, the US sent US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Amos Hochstein to Lebanon to try to work out a formula for a compromise.
Hochstein proposed drawing a provisional blue maritime line keeping the disputed area along this line from the Lebanese and Israeli sides outside the exploration operations until a final demarcation agreement is reached. 
In the meantime, investment in other undisputed areas could start within the context of the mutually agreed Blue Line understanding.
Hof gave another American proposal offering Lebanon 500 square km  and Israel 360 square km. Lebanon agreed to take the 500 square km  but refused to give up the 360 square km to Israel.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday that the US must accept Lebanon’s demands over the border disputes with Israel and vowed it was ready to act against Israel if necessary, Reuters reported.
“The state must have a strong and firm position,” the leader of the Iran-backed movement said.
Satterfield had arrived in Beirut as part of the delegation traveling with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on his regional tour. But the diplomat stayed on after Tillerson left to work on a resolution to the dispute.
Satterfield, a former ambassador to Lebanon, was expected to travel to Israel for further talks.
Official sources told Arab News that Satterfield may return to Lebanon a second time after visiting Israel “if he carries constructive proposals.”