Lebanon Expands Claim Amid Maritime Dispute With Zionist Regime
BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Beirut has amended the maritime boundary claim it had originally submitted to the United Nations by 1,430 square kilometers, with Michel Najjar, public works and transport minister of the country’s caretaker government, reporting on Monday that he had signed a document to that effect.
The decree must now be endorsed by caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and President Michel Aoun, after which it would be sent to the UN.
The new claim partially overlaps with the Karish gas field, a large field occupied by the Zionist regime thought to contain up to 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
Earlier, media reported that David Hale, U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, would visit Lebanon to try to pressure the government not to expand its maritime claim, and instead give up claims to the roughly 1,400 square km of sea area.
UN-sponsored talks on resolving the maritime dispute between Lebanon and the Zionist regime stalled late last year due to overlapping claims.
Relations between Lebanon and the Zionist regime have been tense for many decades, with the Zionist regime occupying a strip of Lebanese territory known as the Shebaa Farms in 1981, in a move rejected by the United Nations as "null and void and without international legal effect.”
The regime invaded Lebanon during the 1982 Lebanon War, and stationed troops in the southern part of the country until the year 2000. In 2006, the two fought a war, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance forces fighting defeated the regime by not allowing it to reach its goals.
The decree must now be endorsed by caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and President Michel Aoun, after which it would be sent to the UN.
The new claim partially overlaps with the Karish gas field, a large field occupied by the Zionist regime thought to contain up to 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
Earlier, media reported that David Hale, U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, would visit Lebanon to try to pressure the government not to expand its maritime claim, and instead give up claims to the roughly 1,400 square km of sea area.
UN-sponsored talks on resolving the maritime dispute between Lebanon and the Zionist regime stalled late last year due to overlapping claims.
Relations between Lebanon and the Zionist regime have been tense for many decades, with the Zionist regime occupying a strip of Lebanese territory known as the Shebaa Farms in 1981, in a move rejected by the United Nations as "null and void and without international legal effect.”
The regime invaded Lebanon during the 1982 Lebanon War, and stationed troops in the southern part of the country until the year 2000. In 2006, the two fought a war, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance forces fighting defeated the regime by not allowing it to reach its goals.