On Thursday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun announced the list of delegates who will be leading crucial negotiations over maritime border issues with Israel that are scheduled for next week. Last week, representatives from both states, who are still officially at war with one another, announced that they would be holding talks to end a decades-long maritime and border dispute.
Lebanon and Israel do not share any diplomatic relations since both of them claim a patch of around 330 square miles of the energy-rich Mediterranean as their exclusive economic zones (EEZ). In the past, both sides have protested against the other’s offshore drilling expeditions in the contested waters. While both parties have made feeble attempts at negotiations over the past three decades, which have not been fruitful in reaching a consensus, next week’s talks are the first time Beirut and Tel Aviv will be engaging in high-level discussions on the issue. The meeting will be held after the Sukkot holiday under the watch of the United Nations (UN) and will be mediated by representatives from the United States (US) and will take place at the UN Interim Force in Lebanon’s (UNIFIL) headquarter in Naquora.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated his support for the two parties, saying that the talks “have the potential to yield greater stability, security and prosperity for Lebanese and Israeli citizens alike.” He called the agreement “historic”, insinuating that it was achieved after “nearly three years of intense diplomatic engagement” by Washington. While Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz will lead the Israeli side, the Lebanese team will include Deputy Chief of Staff of the Lebanese Army for Operations Brigadier–General Bassam Yassin, and Wisam Shbat, chief of the Lebanese Petroleum Administration. The Lebanese officials will be working in consultation with the President’s office. Both sides will be coming together to renegotiate their disputed shared border, which is currently demarcated by the UN as the Blue Line.
The breakthrough idea for the summit was achieved during Assistant US Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Schenker’s recent visit to the region and came a few weeks after the White House announced the Abraham Accords, wherein Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates normalized ties with Israel. However, officials and analysts close to the issue have said that no diplomatic deal between Lebanon and Israel are on the table for now, with the Hezbollah also reacting strongly to the announcement and its parliament members stating that the decision to enter talks “does not mean” that Beirut is ready to make peace with Tel Aviv.
Lebanon is also currently recovering from its deep political and economic crisis, which was exacerbated by the massive explosion that rocked its capital city and its main port in August. The government is currently in the midst of a political deadlock after several senior leaders, including the Prime Minister, who resigned under pressure from mounting public dissent over corruption and mismanagement. On Wednesday, Aoun announced that parliamentary consultations to select a new Prime Minister would begin on 15 October, in another attempt to push Beirut’s elite and deeply sectarian political class towards forming a new administration.
Source : State Craft News
