The conclusion of the agreement will be of economic benefit to both countries in terms of gas exploration in the Mediterranean

Israel and Lebanon negotiate tomorrow the demarcation of their borders

photo_camera AFP/YOAV DUDKEVITCH - The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel and Lebanon will begin negotiations tomorrow to demarcate their maritime border, which is intended to put an end to a decade of dispute and enable both sides to explore and exploit possible gas reserves in the Mediterranean.

The talks will be conducted with US mediation, begin at the UN headquarters in the border town of Naqura and include precautions against the coronavirus, such as holding them in the open air in a tent.

"We have a very clear and limited objective: we only want to resolve a maritime dispute over our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in order to pave the way for the exploration, discovery of gas fields in the Mediterranean for the benefit of both peoples," a senior Israeli Energy Ministry official said today.

The source stressed that the aim of these talks "is not to initiate a normalisation (of relations with Lebanon) or to negotiate peace". It is merely a matter of resolving the dispute over the line that should separate the two neighbouring countries and thus "remove the obstacle that has prevented the development of natural resources on both the Israeli and Lebanese sides over the last ten years".

Mapa de las delimitaciones marítimas de Líbano

Israel approaches these negotiations from a strictly economic point of view, as a problem that has prevented the development of possible gas fields in the area over the past decade, and for this reason its negotiators will be led by the Ministry of Energy.

"This is a limited effort to resolve a well-defined problem," said the source, who added that resolving the dispute is "important for Israel but crucial for the Lebanese side" which, if gas is discovered in the area, could move towards energy self-sufficiency, being able to allocate its resources to other fields.

The Israeli side assures that it will come to the negotiating table "with a very pragmatic attitude" and with the intention of reaching an agreement "in a few months", which it believes will happen provided that the Lebanese also come "with a pragmatic stance to solve this issue as soon as possible and not with the intention of winning a victory over their Zionist enemy". If this were the case, both sides could "continue to discuss the demarcation line for another ten years", which would be detrimental to both.

Israel believes that it is precisely by limiting the talks strictly to this issue that the objective is "achievable" and will soon allow both sides to make use of their natural resources.

The dispute concerns a difference of a few kilometres (between 5 and 6) as to where the dividing line should run, on which the access of both sides to possible resources that may exist in the subsoil will depend.

Israel has discovered and begun to exploit large pockets of gas in the Mediterranean over the past decade, which have enabled it to become practically self-sufficient in energy and to become an exporter in recent years. In December 2019 it began to extract gas from the Leviathan field, one of the world's largest reserves, located some 130 kilometres off the Israeli coast.

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