1/10/2022–|Last update: 10/1/202204:16 PM (Mecca)
Today, Saturday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun received a written offer from the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, regarding the demarcation of the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel. While the Israeli Channel 12 reported, citing sources, that the Israeli security staff will ratify the border demarcation agreement with Lebanon next week, ending tension between the two parties and mutual threats that amounted to the threat of a military option.
The Lebanese presidency said – in a statement – that the US ambassador to Beirut, Dorothy Shea, handed Aoun the written offer.
She added that President Michel Aoun had contacted Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and had consulted with them on how to respond to the US offer.
Hochstein had prepared the written presentation following meetings he held with the Lebanese and Israeli parties in the past months.
A Lebanese legal and security committee will study the US offer to express its observations before submitting an official response to it.
For two years, the United States has been mediating between Israel and Lebanon to reach an agreement delineating the maritime borders between them and removing obstacles to oil and gas exploration and extraction.
Lebanon and Israel are quarreling over a sea rich in oil and gas in the Mediterranean, with an area of 860 square kilometers, according to maps deposited by both parties to the United Nations, and the United States is mediating indirect negotiations to settle the dispute and delineate the maritime borders between them.
In the past few weeks, and with the frequency of the American mediator’s movements, Israeli media circulated information that there was an American offer that Israel would give up a certain sea area deep in the sea, and in return Lebanon would give up a certain sea area close to the coastal strip, but Lebanese officials did not confirm this show.
The Karish gas field – which Israel says is located within its territorial waters – has become at the center of the dispute over energy resources in the maritime region between Lebanon and Israel, and the Lebanese Hezbollah threatened to move militarily if the field began to be exploited before reaching an agreement, and Tel Aviv responded by threatening the party.
The Karish oil and natural gas field is located in the territorial waters of the Mediterranean basin, 100 km from the Israeli coast, and regarding 75 km from the Haifa coast.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Energy, the field is only regarding 4 km from the border with Israel, specifically in Block No. 8, and 7 km from Block No. 9, which belong to Lebanese territorial waters.
The area of the Karish field is estimated at 150 square kilometers, and the volume of natural gas reserves in the field is estimated at 1.3 trillion cubic feet, while other estimates indicate that the volume of reserves ranges between 1.5 trillion and two trillion cubic feet.
“Indirect” negotiations were launched between Beirut and Tel Aviv in October 2020, under the auspices of the United Nations, with the aim of demarcating the borders between the two sides, and five rounds of negotiations were held, the last of which was in May 2021.