Lebanon-Israel demarcation negotiations begins again

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker has completed his first visit to Lebanon since taking the office succeeding David Satterfield and began a thousand-mile journey to resolve borders demarcation between Lebanon and Israel.

The lebanese President Michel Aoun has informed Schenker about his wish that the United States resumes its mediation to reach the demarcation of ground and maritime borders in the south, where it stopped during Satterfield time, especially since several points have been agreed on and only few points have remained in the terms of negotiations.

Schenker affirmed Washington’s support for the stability of Lebanon, and hoped that it can reach a joint agreement with its neighbors, so Lebanon could benefit from oil and natural gas reserves in the marine area.

While Lebanese media sources showed that what was resulted in deliberations of Schenker in Beirut is the absence of a new offer, but a completion of the proposals of his predecessor, pointing out the warnings issued by the US envoy that “the process of imposing sanctions on those who deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon is not limited to a specific doctrine.” 

Regarding the demarcation of the borders he expressed impatience of the U.S. administration over the delay of agreement on the negotiating framework, while noting at the same time that he “does not have the patience of Satterfield, therefore, he will not accept to wait for another year for the response of the Lebanese government”.

Regarding success opportunities of Schenker’s efforts to reach a satisfying conclusion of the borders demarcation file, the political writer Munir al-Rabie told North-Press that “Lebanon is asking for a certain period of time, in which it makes sure that there is no military escalation between Hezbollah and Israel on the basis of investment in Lebanon, until some negotiating points between Iran and the United States are settled”.

Regarding the connectedness of borders demarcation negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, and the escalating course in the region, al-Rabie commented that “what Tehran wants is to wait for the new U.S. presidential elections, as it considers Trump’s policy will change towards it after the elections, and positivity can be relied on to renew the nuclear agreement thereafter. Therefore, we cannot talk about borders demarcation agreement in Lebanon without the US-Iranian rapprochement”.

On the level of Hezbollah’s positions, al-Rabie stressed that “the recent positions of the Secretary-General of Hezbollah made it clear that Lebanon has become unified with Iran as Lebanon’s fate is linked to Iran, whether in peace or war, which means that stability should be further devoted to negotiations with Iran, to make stability the basis for starting the phase of exploration of oil and ensure Israel’s security”.

Israel is keen to open negotiations with Lebanon and close the file of the maritime borders dispute, especially for its economic interests, so that the process of extraction and sale of gas and oil would operate under secured borders, in addition to what would result from the demarcation of borders and the closure of this file, of applying the reality of calmness on its northern front.

Moreover, ground and maritime demarcation would consecrate Lebanon’s “rights” for the international community, as some of the discovered oil and gas blocks are located in geographically sensitive areas between Lebanon and Israel, as the latter claims the right to explore and to extract vital products, while Lebanon is waiting to start exploring for oil and gas off the coast of Batroun and Jbeil in December 15.

However, the retired brigadier-general Hassan Bashroush told North-Press that “Schenker’s deliberations for demarcation of borders are political rather than technical, and will not provide the real lever for any future borders demarcation, so any excavation in the disputed areas by the parties, will not start in the near term”.

“Washington is distracting the Lebanese with new periods of time under the title of demarcation of the borders, but the real aim of these deliberations is to change the rules of engagement which have gone into effect since 2006, the thing that give the Israelis new gains”, Bashroush added.