Twenty-two years after the end of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, the country of cedars fears that history will repeat itself. This time in its territorial waters, whose delimitation is the subject of litigation with Israel.
After crossing the Suez Canal, last Sunday a gas tanker from Energean – a company listed in London and Tel Aviv – took up positions on the Karish field. The Israeli government, which granted it the license, expects the naval production, storage and offloading unit to start pumping in September.
The re-elected president of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, announced yesterday that “the American mediator” Amos Hochstein (who is also Israeli) will go to Beirut in the next five days to bring positions closer together.
Beirut is against the fact that, in 2011, it presented a demarcation line to the UN that leaves out the Karish deposit and even a small part of the Qana deposit. Then he has added 1,430 square kilometers, but has not made his claim official. The Israeli line, for its part, splits Qana in half.
With current gas prices, both parties have incentives to close a deal. A year and a half ago, Hochstein already halfway, without reaching the finish line. An advance, even so, considering that Israel and Lebanon are technically still at war.
“We have the ability to prevent exploitation,” Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah has warned. Voices from his militia speak of surrender on the part of the Free Patriotic Movement (MPL) in exchange for the US lifting sanctions on its leaders. Even so, the Lebanese president, Michel Aun (MPL), has described the Israeli action as “hostile”.
Israel already has notable deposits, such as the so-called Leviathan. For Lebanon, on the other hand, it would be water in May, due to its energy shortages. These led to devising a plan to bring Egyptian gas through Jordan and Syria. But the World Bank has not agreed to finance it.
On the other hand, on the eve of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the US abandoned the EastMed gas pipeline, which aims to bring Israeli gas to Europe through Cyprus and Greece, bypassing Turkey.
