The Israeli military is in favor of the option for the Hezbollah terror organization to attempt to attack Karish’s new fuel platform off the country’s Mediterranean coast, Kan News reported Sunday.
The report says military ships would help protect the platform, adding submarines. A naval edition of the Iron Dome missile defense formula will also come to the domain to help protect the platform.
The new drilling rig arrived in Karish on Sunday and is expected to be operational in the coming months.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun warned Sunday that Israel opposes drilling in Karish, saying it is a disputed site.
Walla news on Sunday night quoted an anonymous senior Israeli official who called the Lebanese allegations “lies,” adding that Beirut’s recent claims about “contradict positions that Lebanon itself has put forward in the past. “
“Any action or activity in the disputed domain represents a provocation and a hostile act,” Aoun said.
He said the president discussed the issue with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and asked army leaders to keep him informed about the platform, which is operated through the Greek power company Energean. Lebanon and Israel.
According to Reuters, Mikati accused Israel of “invading Lebanon’s maritime wealth and enforcing a fait accompli in a disputed area. “He called the Israeli resolution “extremely dangerous. “
“The resolution of a reaction [to the ship’s access] is in the hands of the state and Hezbollah,” Bassam Yasin, head of the Lebanese delegation to the negotiations, was quoted as saying by Kan.
The long-standing enemies, Israel and Lebanon, have held talks over the past year with the aim of demarcating exclusive economic zones on the high seas. The disputed area, several hundred kilometers wide, is believed to involve significant deposits of herbal fuel, a potential replacement for Lebanon, which is mired in a devastating economic crisis.
The terrorist organization Hezbollah has warned Israel that it opposes unilaterally seeking herbal fuel in the disputed maritime region before reaching an agreement.
The negotiations are aimed at a disputed maritime domain of 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) according to a map registered with the United Nations in 2011.
But in 2020, Lebanon demanded an extra 1,430 kilometers to the south, Lebanese energy expert Laury Haytayan said, calling the new phase of talks a “war of cards. “
The additional dominance extends to the portion of the Karish fuel box that Israel has allocated to Energean, which intended to begin pumping fuel into Israel’s domestic market last year. Karish, Hebrew for shark, comprises 1. 4 trillion cubic feet of fuel shown and probable.
Lebanon’s foreign minister responded definitively in February to proposals by U. S. negotiator Amos Hochstein to resolve the maritime border dispute with Israel, while Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly gave the green light to continue negotiations.
However, Nasrallah expressed fierce opposition to U. S. -mediated talks last month, to contradict earlier reports.
The domain around Karish also includes a prospect known as Block 72, which is also believed to involve significant hydrocarbon deposits. it was reportedly hampered by considerations about its fate in the dispute with Lebanon.
He contributed to this report.
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