Israel Matzav

UN tells Lebanon to stop complaining about its borders and start looking for oil

Saying that Lebanon is at least seven years behind Israel in oil and gas exploration, UN Representative Michael Williams has actually told Lebanon to stop complaining about their borders, and to start looking for oil and gas, according to a report in the Lebanese newspaper as-Safir.

Lebanon is at least seven years behind Israel in terms of developing its maritime natural gas and oil fields, Lebanese newspaper As-Safir reported United Nations special representative Michael Williams as saying Thursday. Williams urged Lebanon to begin passing laws that would allow energy companies to begin searching for oil and natural gas in Lebanon's Mediterranean coast.

Williams also said that the UN was committed to the implementation of UN resolution 1701, which ended hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 and supported the territorial integrity of Lebanon within its internationally recognized borders, including those borders at sea.

While acknowledging that issues surrounding the Israeli-Lebanese border could influence peace keeping between the two countries, he stressed that Beirut must begin focusing more attention on issues of development in the energy field.

Lebanese Energy Minister Jibran Bassil told As-Safir that Prime Minister Nijab Mitaki's government has now put the oil and gas issue as a high priority. Bassil also said that the Cabinet has created a unified approach to the issue of offshore energy exploration, and has created a government commission for the matter.

Williams won't last long. It's forbidden to tell Arab countries that they can't blame Israel for everything that goes wrong. That gets you fired at the UN.

Labels: Lebanon, Michael Williams, oil and gas exploration

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:34 AM