The White House said that Biden told Lebanese President Michel Aoun, in a phone call, on Tuesday, that the maritime border demarcation agreement could “represent a new chapter for the Lebanese people”, and that the United States would help solve problems that might arise from the agreement.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced on Tuesday that his country had reached a historic agreement with Lebanon regarding their joint maritime borders, in a step that could pave the way for natural gas exploration.
Behind the scenes of the agreement
The Associated Press quoted an Israeli official, who described it as “large”, that the agreement will allow Lebanon to produce gas from the “Qana” field, but it will pay fees to Israel for any gas extracted from the Israeli side.
Lebanon is working with French energy giant Total on preparations to explore the field, although actual production may take years.
The official, who was not named, said the agreement would also leave a “line of buoys” in place and serve as a de facto border between the two countries.
The agency did not indicate the name of the Israeli official, who revealed the details, given his talk about negotiations taking place behind the scenes.
The establishment of the line of buoys, that is, the drawing of the border separating the waters of the two states, was one of the sticking points in the negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.
Lebanese fears were raised, earlier, of laying a line for buoys, in a way that “gnaws” kilometers of Lebanese waters, while another fear was raised on the Israeli side that northern Israel would be monitored by the Lebanese side, if the line moved more to the south.
hard birth
The US envoy, Amos Hochstein, put forward a final formula earlier this October, which Israel accepted, but Lebanon requested some amendments.
Israel said last week that it intended to reject the changes requested by Lebanon, even if this made it impossible to reach an agreement, but negotiations continued, and culminated when the two sides talked about acceptable final terms.
The main point of contention in the talks was the Karish gas field, which Israel insisted is located entirely in its waters, while it was not the subject of negotiations.
It was reported that Lebanon demanded part of the field, while Hezbollah threatened to launch attacks if Israel started production from Karish.
But Israel said production will start from Karish as soon as possible, regardless of what Lebanon demands.
The formula presented by the American mediator and leaked to the press stipulated that the Karish field would be completely subject to Israeli control in exchange for granting the Qana field to Lebanon, knowing that a portion of it exceeds the demarcation line separating the two countries’ waters.
Satisfaction and hopes for profit
This agreement, which comes after several years of US-brokered talks, represents a major breakthrough in relations between Israel and Lebanon.
But this agreement still faces some obstacles, including legal and political challenges in Israel, while Lebanese officials have indicated that they will agree to the agreement.
The offices of Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said they had received congratulatory phone calls from US President Joe Biden.
“You are making history,” Lapid’s office quoted Biden as saying, referring to the move to agree on the demarcation of the maritime border.
One of the big problems is the rights to exploit the undersea natural gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean regions, which are claimed by the two countries.
Lebanon hopes that gas exploration will help lift the country out of its deepening economic crisis for years.
In the same vein, Israel is also betting on the exploitation of gas reserves while calming tensions with Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Israel and Lebanon each claim 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean.
Under the agreement, this water will be divided along a line along the strategic natural gas field “Qana”.
test tubes
On Sunday, the London Stock Exchange-listed “Energean” began conducting a test of pipelines between Israel and the Karish field.
On Sunday, the company said that after obtaining approval from the Israeli Ministry of Energy to start the tests, gas began flowing to the Karish floating production storage offloading platform.
But unlike Karish, the Qana field is still far from operational and more exploration is required to identify recoverable gas resources.
In this context, Laurent Vivier, Director of Exploration and Production at Total Energy in the Middle East and North Africa, arrived in Lebanon on Tuesday.
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