Lazar Berman is the diplomatic reporter for The Times of Israel
The imminent agreement on Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon is a victory for Israel’s security, a senior Israeli official said late Sunday.
“Israel’s security interests are anchored in the agreement,” the official said, pointing to Israel’s line of sea buoys stretching kilometers (about 3 miles) into the Mediterranean from Rosh Hanikra.
“The buoy line is a vital Israeli safety line, which has never been approved by any outside actor,” the official said in a telephone briefing with Israeli journalists. “This will allow Israel to treat it as its northern territorial border. “
Israel deployed the floats following the withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000. The border marked the boundaries of where Israel operates unilaterally with complete freedom of action.
The line will be the northern boundary of Israeli waters for the first five kilometers from the coast, after which the border will adhere to the southern edge of the disputed area, known as Line 23.
The agreement also serves the economic interests of the Lebanese, who will have economic rights in the domain bordered by Line 23 to the south.
The official strongly denied that Israel had yielded to all Lebanese demands, as accused by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, noting that Beirut had demanded that Line 29 further south be the border. This would have given Lebanon parts of the Karish fuel field.
There will be a refund for Israel for relinquishing rights to the Qana fuel field, part of which is in Israeli waters.
“We are still working on the main points of this agreement with Total,” the official said, referring to French multinational energy company TotalEnergies. “This is an agreement between Israel and Lebanon; it is an agreement between Israel and the consortium.
If either party approves the deal, it will be binding and anchored in law, the senior official said.
The deal includes a segment on some sort of joint occasion with an Israeli and Lebanese representation to mark the deal. “We think this is very important,” the official said.
It is still unclear where the rite would take position and who would constitute the Israeli side.
Israel has yet to officially approve the plan, Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz have responded positively. The official said ministers are expected to vote on the matter at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the attorney general has yet to raise a legal factor. on the subject.
“It is urgent and to reach an agreement in the short or long term and without delay, to avoid an escalation of security [dangers], which [otherwise] is very likely, and to use the exclusive window of opportunity to succeed in a deal,” an IDF official said, according to Channel Twelfth.
“It is conceivable at all times that Lebanon will renege on its agreement,” the senior administration official said, while stressing that Israel would start extracting fuel from Karish regardless of the deal’s prestige.
“Hezbollah is not a direct party to this deal,” the official said. “The leaders take Nasrallah’s position into account, but it is not he who negotiates directly here. “
Lapid showed on Sunday that Israel had won the long-negotiated U. S. proposal for its maritime border dispute with Lebanon, and also argued that the plan would safeguard Israel’s regional interests.
The United States on Saturday passed the written plan to Lebanese President Michel Aoun.
“We are discussing the final details,” Lapid said, warning that it is still too early to conclude the deal.
“We oppose the progression of an additional Lebanese fuel field, from which, of course, we will get the percentage we deserve,” Lapid said.
“Such a box will weaken Lebanon’s dependence on Iran, curb Hezbollah and promote regional stability,” he said.
But he insisted that “as we have called for from day one, the proposal fully safeguards Israel’s diplomatic and security interests, as well as our economic interests. “
“For more than 10 years, Israel has sought to succeed in this deal, which strengthens Israeli security and the Israeli economy,” Lapid said.
Aoun met Saturday with U. S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea and won a written proposal from U. S. mediator Amos Hochstein for the demarcation of the maritime border with Israel.
Lebanese state media said the government is running temporarily to formulate a reaction to the plan.
The text of the proposal has been published for publication.
The maritime dispute considers some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea that come with lucrative offshore fuel fields.
U. S. -brokered talks on rights in the area, which are the subject of long-standing oblique negotiations between Jerusalem and Beirut and repeated threats from the Hezbollah terror group, are complicated in weeks.
The talks began under the auspices of the previous government, led by then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu charged Sunday that “Lapid has no mandate to hand over to an enemy state sovereign territories and sovereign assets that belong to us all.
Netanyahu also said Lapid had “caved in to Hezbollah’s threats” and that if he were to form a government after the Nov. 1 election, he would be bound by the deal.
Lapid responded in a tweet addressed directly to Netanyahu, saying: “For 10 years you have not been able to verify to succeed in this deal, at least do not harm the security interests of Israel and Hezbollah with irresponsible messages.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz weighed in on Netanyahu’s comments, accusing the opposition leader of being guided by “irresponsible political considerations. “
“We will continue to look after the political, security and economic interests of the State of Israel with duty and political acumen,” he tweeted.
Tensions have risen after Israel earlier this year moved a fuel exploration vessel to the disputed Karish fuel box and recently said it would begin extracting it from the site. Last month, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened that missiles from his Iranian-backed terrorist organization would be “blocked” in Karish.
However, in televised remarks on Saturday, Nasrallah said the draft agreement with the United States opens “promising new horizons for the other Lebanese by saving the country from the crisis into which they have fallen. “
Lebanon claims that Karish’s fuel box is in disputed territory, while Israel claims it is in its identified economic waters around the world.
Last month, Lapid promised that Israel would go ahead and extract fuel from Karish with or without an agreement on the maritime border with Lebanon.
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