Israeli PM Lapid Announces ‘Historic’ Deal With Lebanon Over Maritime Border

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid announced Tuesday that Israel and Lebanon had reached an “historic” agreement  over the maritime border between the two countries.

Lapid said that the deal would “strengthen Israel’s security, inject billions into Israel’s economy, and ensure the stability of our northern border.”

The premier will convene the security cabinet on Wednesday, followed by a special meeting of the full cabinet to approve the agreement, according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry.

The statement comes after weeks of speculation about a deal which has increasingly come under criticism from the Israeli opposition both due to the terms of the deal, which involve Israel relinquishing territorial waters in return for promises of compensation for natural gas found in the region, and due to the current caretaker status of the government.

The Israeli announcement came minutes after Lebanese President Michel Aoun tweeted that “the final version of the offer satisfies Lebanon, meets its demands and preserves its rights to its natural wealth.”

Hezbollah, which had repeatedly threatened Israel over natural gas extraction, agreed to the terms of the deal and considers the negotiations over, according to a Reuters report.

The successful completion of the deal comes in the wake of intense efforts by US mediator Amos Hochstein in recent days to bridge the gaps between the two sides.

On Tuesday morning, Israel received a draft of the agreement, and determined that it meets its economic, security, and legal demands.

“All our demands were met, the changes that we asked for were corrected. We protected Israel’s security interests and are on our way to an historic agreement,” Eyal Hulata, the national security adviser and the lead negotiator at the talks, said in a statement.

Lebanon has also approved the updated draft of the US-negotiated deal and is ready to sign an “historic” deal, which has been led by US envoy Amos Hochstein.

Hochstein submitted last week what at the time was described as a final proposal aimed at settling a dispute over control of a series of gas fields off the coast of Israel and Lebanon — two countries officially at war and with no recognized maritime boundary between them.

A deal would put to bed a long-running dispute over some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea, covering the Karish and the Qana gas fields.

While details of the agreement have not been formally publicized, officials said that last week’s proposal granted Jerusalem international recognition of its buoy-marked boundary five kilometers (3.1 miles) off the coast of the northern town of Rosh Hanikra, which Israel established in 2000 after withdrawing from southern Lebanon. After that, Israel’s border will follow the southern edge of the disputed area known as Line 23.

Lebanon will enjoy the economic benefits of the area north of Line 23, including the Qana gas field, though a senior Israeli official briefing reporters on the deal said that Jerusalem will receive compensation for giving up rights to Qana, a portion of which will lie in what the agreement recognizes as Israeli waters.

Last week Lebanon had rejected the demand to recognize Israel’s northern maritime border and Lapid had insisted on this being part of the agreement. Lebanon had also rejected Israel’s right to revenue from the Kana oil field.

Hochstein’s new proposal refers to both issues of conflict and apparently succeeded in bridging the gaps between the sides, although details of the new agreement have not yet been released.

On Saturday, Israel’s security establishment gave Energean a green light to start testing the Karish pipeline, with full operations slated to begin within weeks. Israel has insisted it will not wait for a deal, but has only allowed Energean to take preliminary steps thus far.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly threatened that his group will strike Israel if it begins gas exploration at Karish before a maritime agreement is reached. In more recent rounds of talks, Lebanon began claiming ownership of Karish in addition to Qana. The demand has been largely dismissed, with Israel insisting that its control over Karish is non-negotiable.

Opposition leaders are set to petition the high court against the deal and even the Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has recommended that Lapid bring the deal to the Knesset before signing it in order to gain legitimacy in court. However Lapid intends to move ahead with only the approval of the cabinet.