President Aoun: Lebanon Not to Give Up Oil, Gas Rights

Date: 13 June 2022 - 21:27

News ID: ۱۰۳۶۱۳

BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Lebanon will not give up on its right to its oil and gas wealth in the faceoff with the Zionist regime, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Monday.

“It is out of the question for Lebanon to give up on its right to its gas and oil wealth. But we will emphasize during our talks with U.S. Energy Envoy Amos Hochstein Lebanon’s willingness to resume indirect negotiations with Israel,” Aoun was quoted as saying in a statement released by Lebanon’s Presidency.

Aoun’s remarks came during his meeting with Lebanon’s independent lawmakers who urged the president to protect Lebanon’s oil and gas wealth.

The president also undermined Zionist threats, pointing out that the occupying regime has violated international laws and resolutions by sending a ship to a disputed area with Lebanon.

On June 5, the occupying regime sent an Energean Power ship to the disputed Karish gas field.

Hundreds of people and several lawmakers protested on Sunday in southern Lebanon against the Zionist regime’s moving the gas production vessel into the offshore field.

The protesters waved Lebanese and Palestinian flags at Lebanon’s border town of Naqoura to protest the occupying regime’s claim on the area where the Karish field is located, an AFP correspondent said.

“We absolutely refuse to neglect Lebanon’s maritime resources, which belong to all Lebanese,” said lawmaker Firas Hamdan, reading a joint statement from 13 independent parliamentarians, most of whom were newly elected last month.

Lebanon and the occupying regime have no diplomatic relations.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement this week warned Energean against proceeding with its activities.

Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said the movement is “ready” to take action if the government confirms that the occupying regime is violating the maritime rights of the country.

On Thursday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah, said the resistance would not remain “silent” in the face of the Zionist regime’s efforts to plunder Lebanon’s gas resources.

The Zionist regime has reportedly deployed air missile systems in Tel Aviv and Haifa following a warning Nasrallah that the resistance movement is “not afraid of war.”

According to a report published by Lebanon’s al-Akhbar newspaper on Saturday, the occupying regime’s military was put on alert immediately after Nasrallah’s speech to counter any surprise attacks.