The statement confirmed that Lebanon and Israel They still hope that those negotiations will lead to the “long-awaited solution”.
On Thursday, representatives of Lebanon and Israel ended a third session of technical discussions on demarcating the maritime borders in southern Lebanon under the auspices of the United Nations and American mediation, to be held next month.
The negotiations began in an opening session on the fourteenth of this month between two countries that are considered at war and aspire to share oil resources in regional waters, after years of mediation undertaken by Washington, which plays the role of mediator in the talks.
The third session, which is a continuation of another that was held on Wednesday as part of the second indirect negotiation round, began at about ten in the morning local time (08:00 GMT) amidst tight security measures taken by him Lebanese army In the border city of Naqoura.
The session lasted for about four hours, after which the meeting left, to hold a fourth meeting on the eleventh of next month, according to a Lebanese source familiar with the progress of the negotiations.
The sessions will take place at a border point belonging to the United Nations force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), far from the media, in the presence of extreme secrecy, and in the presence of representatives of the United Nations and American diplomat John DeRoucher, who facilitates negotiations between the two sides.
Lebanon insists on the purely technical nature of the indirect talks aimed exclusively at Maritime delineationWhile Israel talks about direct negotiations.
In 2018, Lebanon signed the first contract to explore for gas and oil in two areas of its territorial waters, one of which, known as Block No. 9, is located in the disputed part with Israel. Consequently, there is no option for Lebanon to operate in this territory except after the borders are demarcated.
The National Agency reported that the Lebanese delegation on Thursday carried “irrefutable maps and documents showing points of disagreement and the violation of the Israeli enemy against the Lebanese right to annex part of Block 9”.
The negotiations relate to a maritime area extending to about 860 square kilometers, based on a map sent in 2011 to the United Nations, and Lebanon later considered it based on wrong estimates.
The Lebanese state launches into negotiations, explains the director of the Institute for Natural Resources Governance in Middle east And North Africa Laurie Haitien, “From the principle of demanding the maximum that can be obtained under the roof of international law and the law of the sea, that is, it wants to go beyond 860 square kilometers.”
Lebanon has always insisted in the past on linking the demarcation of the maritime borders with those of the land, but negotiations will focus only on the maritime borders, provided that the demarcation of the land borders will be discussed, according to the United Nations, within the framework of the tripartite periodic meeting that has been held for years.
Source : Agencies
