BEIRUT: Amos Hochstein, the US State Department’s senior advisor for energy security, will visit Lebanon June 13-14 to discuss the country’s energy crisis and underscore Washington’s hope that Lebanon and Israel can reach a decision delimiting their maritime boundary.
The State Department said in a statement that it “welcomes the consultative and open spirit of the parties to reach a final decision, which has the potential to yield greater stability, security, and prosperity for both Lebanon and Israel, as well as for the region.”
This comes following the arrival of the Energean Power floating production, storage and offloading vessel to the disputed maritime area in the south of Lebanon.
The ship’s arrival in the Israeli oil field of Karish has reopened a divisive political issue in Lebanon — whether to adopt Line 29 or Line 23 in the demarcation of the country’s southern maritime borders.
BACKGROUND
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry has reported that there are Greek sailors aboard the ship brought by Tel Aviv to the Karish field.
Adopting Line 29 would entail Lebanon relinquishing 1,430 square kilometers, according to a technical team from the Lebanese Army and a legal study based on a report of the British Hydrographic Office done on behalf of the Lebanese government in 2011.
In 2011, the Lebanese government sent Decree 6433 to the UN stating that Line 23 pertains to Lebanon and that Lebanon commits to demanding it. This would mean that Lebanon receives only an area of 860 square kilometers from the disputed block.
To date, Decree 6433 has not been amended to include the additional 1,430 square kilometers south of Point 23 and deposited with the UN before the resumption of negotiations.
Indirect Lebanese-Israeli negotiations to demarcate the maritime borders took place in October 2020, with Washington mediating. The negotiations, received by the UN at the UN Interim Force in Lebanon border headquarters, were hastily frozen by the Israeli side after the Lebanese delegation raised its demands.
Hochstein’s visit includes meetings with President Michel Aoun and Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab, tasked by the president to follow up on the border demarcation file.
Former caretaker Premier Hassan Diab signed on April 12, 2021 the draft decree amending Decree 6433. It was sent by the Cabinet to the presidential palace in the hope that Aoun would sign it into force, but the president has yet to sign the decree, and a new government has not been formed to act in accordance with the constitution's requirements.
Brig. Gen. Bassam Yassin, former head of the Lebanese delegation at the maritime border talks between Lebanon and Israel, agreed that “the Lebanese Cabinet should meet and amend Decree No. 6433 before the two-month deadline for the commencement of the oil and gas extraction from the disputed Karish field.”
“One of the conditions of the US mediator Hochstein to resume negotiations is not to amend this decree,” said Yassin.
President Michel Aoun considers Line 29 to be a “negotiating line” and that “the amendment of the decree is linked to the negotiations.”
In Beirut, the US mediator’s response early next week “will be oral and nothing will be written,” according to a source close to the ongoing communications taking place prior to Hochstein’s return.
Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech on Thursday that Karish is a disputed field, telling Israelis “to stop exploring it” and warning “the Greeks not to continue drilling and extraction.”
Greece’s Foreign Ministry summoned the officer-in-charge of the Lebanese Embassy in Athens and registered his protest against Nasrallah’s speech.
Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said that “the Greek Foreign Ministry informed the Lebanese officer-in-charge that the extraction vessel in the Mediterranean is not the property of the Greek government.”
“The Lebanese Foreign Ministry has reported that there are Greek sailors aboard the ship brought by Tel Aviv to the Karish field,” clarified Bou Habib.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri did not join Saturday’s meeting between Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, as he is holding on to the framework agreement reached on Oct. 1 with the US to begin demarcation negotiations.
MP Mohammed Khawaja of the Berri parliamentary bloc said that Berri “adheres to the framework agreement and does not waive any fraction of our right,” considering Nasrallah’s position as “a support force for the Lebanese negotiator.”
