Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid has this week signed an agreement with Lebanon to resolve a dispute over a gas field that is split between Israeli and Lebanese territorial waters.
It has been a long time coming and a controversial decision, but it seems Israel and Lebanon are satisfied with the agreement for the most part.
The pact effectively gives up some of Israel’s economic waters to Lebanon but allows Israel to share in the profits of any gas that is extracted.
Under the agreement, the border between the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Israel and Lebanon is set to Line 23, which is what Lebanon demanded, and will result in the transfer of around 860 square kilometres (332 square miles) from Israel to Lebanon.
The gas extraction will be handled by the French energy company Total and the Italian company Eni which works in partnership with Total. Israel and Total will negotiate the royalty agreement which is set at 17% of the profits made and is estimated to be anywhere from nothing to $15 billion over the years.
Even though a negotiated deal was made, Lebanon and Israel are still enemies and they did not negotiate directly. Even the signing of the agreement took place in separate locations.
Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed the agreement in Jerusalem while Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun signed it in his palace in Baabda. US envoy Amos Hochstein, who brokered the deal, was in attendance in Lebanon before travelling to Israel to meet with Lapid.
נפגשתי כעת עם המתווך האמריקאי @amoshochstein, בהמשך לאישור ההסכם הימי בין ישראל ללבנון בישיבת הממשלה המיוחדת הבוקר, ולחתימה על ההסכם בנוכחות צוות המשא ומתן הישראלי. זהו הסכם היסטורי שמחזק את ביטחון ישראל, את כלכלת ישראל ויביא יציבות לאזור – וזו הייתה המטרה העליונה לכל הדבר הזה. pic.twitter.com/nYSa80QWxP
— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) October 27, 2022
“It is not every day that an enemy state recognizes the State of Israel, in a written agreement, in view of the entire international community,” Lapid said at the start of a special cabinet meeting to vote on the deal.
“It’s not every day that the United States and France stand behind us and provide security and economic guarantees for the agreement,” he said.
The Israeli government cabinet voted unanimously in favour of the deal and Yair Lapid signed shortly afterwards.
“This agreement strengthens and fortifies Israel’s security and our freedom of action against Hezbollah and the threats from the north. There is a rare consensus from the whole defence establishment on the importance of the agreement,” Lapid said.
US President Joe Biden congratulated Israel and Lebanon on the deal.
“I am proud to congratulate Israel and Lebanon on officially concluding their agreement to resolve their long-standing maritime boundary dispute. Today in Naqoura, Lebanon, both Parties took the final steps to bring the agreement into force and submitted the final paperwork to the United Nations in the presence of the United States,” said Biden.
Israel’s opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was initially against the deal, saying that he would cancel the agreement if elected. However, in recent days he has moderated his position, saying he would “know how to deal with the agreement, as I dealt with the Oslo Accords after I was elected.”
It has been discussed that if the agreement was going to be cancelled it would happen through a Knesset vote rather than an action by an individual.
A national election will take place next week in Israel, on Tuesday 1st November 2022, which may shift power to the right-wing bloc headed up by Netanyahu. Or it could end in another stalemate.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group that is controlled by Iran, was one of the stumbling blocks to this deal. The group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to attack Israeli gas infrastructure if no deal was made.
On Thursday, Nasrallah declared that Hezbollah is no longer on high alert and is positive about the deal.
“We in Hezbollah consider what happened from the beginning to the end to the results as a great and very big victory for the Lebanese for the state, the people and the resistance, and what happened has very important results and implications,” said Nasrallah on Thursday.
However, the terror leader was clear that this deal does not change the group’s hostility to Israel.
“The demarcation file is not an international treaty and does not imply normalization with Israel, which admits that it has not obtained any security guarantees,” said the Hezbollah leader.
We need to continue praying for Israeli officials as they’re dealing with Lebanon and Hezbollah. Also, let’s pray for Israel’s elections next week.
We call upon the UK Government to officially recognise Jerusalem is Israel's capital and move its embassy to Jerusalem.
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