Israel has accused Lebanon of seeking “substantial changes” to a proposed US-brokered deal on the two countries’ maritime border, throwing into doubt hopes of an imminent resolution of the long-running dispute.
The US envoy mediating talks between the two countries — which are formally at war — sent a draft deal to both sides last week, which was positively received by both Israeli and Lebanese leaders, with one Lebanese official suggesting a deal could be reached this month.
A deal would clear the way for the use of a disputed gasfield in the eastern Mediterranean Sea that Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hizbollah group had threatened to attack if Israel brought it online before a border deal was reached.
However, on Thursday, a senior Israeli official said that Lebanon had requested “substantial changes” to the US proposal and that Israel’s prime minister Yair Lapid, who faces an election next month, had instructed Israeli negotiators to reject the suggested changes.
“Prime Minister Lapid made it clear that Israel will not compromise on its security and economic interests, even if that means that there will be no agreement soon,” said the senior official.
Elias Bou Saab, Lebanon’s deputy Speaker of parliament and lead negotiator, told Reuters on Thursday that the deal was “90 per cent done but the remaining 10 per cent could make or break it”. Lebanese officials had previously said their suggested revisions were minor technical adjustments.
US-mediated talks to resolve the dispute over the maritime border restarted in June, after a vessel operated by London-listed Greek oil and gas explorer Energean arrived at the Karish gasfield from which Israel expects to start producing gas this year.
Israel says the gasfield lies in an area recognised by the UN as the country’s exclusive economic zone and that it has a right to develop the territory.
However, Lebanon says the area is disputed, and Hizbollah warned that if Israel started drawing gas from Karish before the maritime border dispute was resolved, it would take action. Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hizbollah, has said that the group’s missiles are “locked on” Karish. The senior Israeli official said on Thursday that if Hizbollah targeted Karish or threatened Israel, the negotiations on the maritime border would stop.
The deal put forward by the US would have cleared the way for Israel to produce gas from Karish, while allowing Lebanon to develop the neighbouring Qana gasfield in exchange for compensation payments to Israel for its share of that field, although the exact mechanism for such payments was still under discussion. On Tuesday, Bou Saab said Lebanon had secured all the maritime blocs it considered its own, and that it would not pay “one cent” to Israel over Qana.
David Schenker, the former top US state department official for the Middle East under Donald Trump and Amos Hochstein’s predecessor as US mediator in the negotiations, said this draft agreement would give Lebanon all of its demands.
“I don’t see how Israel and the US could accept the deal as is,” Schenker told the Financial Times. “Israeli assets in the Mediterranean will not be cordoned off from Hizbollah attacks. And this deal does not alleviate tensions along the land border.”
Lapid’s main rival in next month’s election, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, has lambasted the proposed deal as “surrendering” to Hizbollah and said that he would not be bound by the deal if he won the election.
