Lebanon and Israel, neighboring countries technically in a state of war, have agreed to start negotiations aimed at clarifying the course of their land and sea borders, which are the subject of numerous disputes. The talks, announced Thursday 1er October by the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri, are supposed to start in mid-October, in Naqoura, in the south of Lebanon, at the headquarters of the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon), with the American Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East, David Schenker, in the role of mediator.
The main objective of this process, which has been germinating for ten years, will be to delimit the borders of the exclusive economic zone bordering northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Negotiators will have to settle the dispute over an area of 860 km2, off Tire, potentially rich in gas, claimed by each of the two countries. The Lebanese authorities are impatient to see the exploration work in this area, entrusted to Total, finally begin. The leaders of the country of the Cedar want to believe in the discovery of a miracle deposit which would allow them to bail out the coffers of the country, in a state of bankruptcy.
Officially “indirect” negotiations
It will be the first time, in nearly forty years, that negotiations have been organized between Israel and Lebanon, beyond the monthly consultations between officers of the two armies, arranged by UNIFIL. We have to go back to 1983, in the midst of the civil war, to find traces of the last official exchanges between the two countries. That year, Lebanese President Amine Gémayel concluded a framework agreement with Israel, opening the way for a possible peace treaty, which had been revoked the following year by Parliament, hostile to any separate peace with “The Zionist entity”.
The Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, launched in 1982 to expel the Fedayeen of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from the land of the Cedars, continued until 2000, when the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli troops under the blows of Hezbollah. In the summer of 2006, the pro-Iranian Shiite movement and the Hebrew state waged a new thirty-three day war which caused immense destruction in Lebanon.
This is to say the minefield on which the negotiators are preparing to advance. The Lebanese authorities, who above all do not want to give the impression of recognizing Israel – a red line for Hezbollah and several other parties – have obtained several concessions from the US administration. These will be negotiations officially “Indirect”, facilitated by the American third party, without time limit, and the drawing of maritime borders “Will have to go hand in hand with that of land borders”, underlined Nabih Berri.
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