Israeli ambassador to Cyprus expelled from energy forum by local organizers
Israeli ambassador to Cyprus Michael Harari (right, with Cypriot Defense Minister Demetris Eliades) was
expelled from an energy forum in Cyprus after the Lebanese Energy Minister refused to speak with an Israeli present (Hat Tip:
Sunlight).
Israeli Ambassador Michael Harari, attend the Energy forum by special invitation, he came to the place - the University of Cyprus - around 10 am.
At 11.15, on schedule, President Christofias arrived with Gebran Bassil, Lebanese Minister of Energy and Water Resources.
According to the agenda - which had been established in advance - Christofias was to give a keynote speech, followed immediately by Bassil, whose address about the future of Lebanon as an energy producer.
Just before the President took a step inside the room, attendees - delegates from the industry and the media - had been asked to stand. It proved a false alarm, because people were asked to retake their seats and wait for the next cue up - which happened a couple of minutes later.
Meanwhile, it seems, Harari was approached by the organizers and asked to leave. He said the Lebanese minister informed them that he would not speak unless and until Harari left.
Once the ambassador of Israel left the room, Christofias and Bassil walked in.
Harari confirmed that he was asked to leave the local field at the insistence of the Lebanese Minister of Energy.
"It's a pity that it happened," he later told the news media.
"I decided to leave in order not to embarrass the president," he said, adding: ". The organizers should have handled it differently."
Ironically, one of the themes of the forum was the need for energy cooperation among the nations of the region.
As you might recall, there is a dispute between Israel and Lebanon over their maritime boundaries. Cyprus, however, is supposed to be on our side. Their kowtowing to Lebanon is inexplicable and ought to be met with a formal diplomatic protest.
Labels: Cyprus, Lebanese-Israeli maritime borders, Lebanon
Hopefully we won't wait for them
Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Monsour has
denied a report in Haaretz that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a framework on talks about their maritime border.
The Israeli Haaretz newspaper had recently reported United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon as saying that Lebanon and Israel agreed to discuss issues of maritime security through a tripartite mechanism and the possible assistance of local experts.
Mansour told al-Nour radio: “The reports are inaccurate and the mechanisms Lebanon will adopt have not been set yet.”
He added that Lebanon first needs to form technical committees in coordination with concerned ministries and foreign experts specialized in maritime law in order to determine the boundaries of Lebanon’s economic zone.
Cabinet will issue the necessary measures to this end, he revealed.
Once the boundaries are determined, then discussions on drilling for oil in the Mediterranean Sea will be possible, the minister explained.
In other words, Lebanon is looking to stall so that it can catch up with Israel's 7-year advantage in oil exploration.
Good luck with that.
Labels: Lebanese-Israeli maritime borders, oil and gas exploration
Hezbullah threatens Israel over maritime borders
Here we go again. Hezbullah's number 2,
Naim Qassem.
Hezbollah on Wednesday issued a stark warning to Jerusalem, vowing to protect its maritime rights against "Israeli threats."
...
Lebanon “will remain vigilant in order to regain its full rights, whatever it takes,” Lebanese news website Naharnet quoted Qassem as saying.
...
“We will not be frightened by the Israeli threats and we will not change our stance in adhering to our rights, and Israel knows that its threats against Lebanon are worthless, after the bitter experiences it went through in the face of Lebanon’s steadfastness and vigor," the Hezbollah deputy chief stated.
So is Lebanon looking for another point of contention?
Jacques Neria thinks they're looking for a diplomatic solution, but that they're more than willing to fight (Hat Tip:
Soccer Dad via Twitter).
The dispute over the gas fields along the Lebanon-Israel maritime border has been described by some analysts as another Shab'aa Farms issue, which historically has been a periodic clash point between Hizbullah and Israel. However, on the gas issue it seems that the parallel is misplaced. Lebanon has a real interest in developing potential fields and a possible confrontation with Israel will not assist in obtaining the energy independence it is seeking. Analyzing Lebanese declarations, it is clear that the Lebanese have chosen first to seek a diplomatic solution either through the UN apparatus or through international courts and bodies of arbitration that specialized in those disputes.
It comes as no surprise, however, that the sudden interest in the potential fossil-fuel wealth off the Israeli and Lebanese coastlines has turned the Mediterranean into a potential theater of confrontation between Israel and Hizbullah. The Lebanese group already boasts an amphibious warfare unit trained in underwater sabotage and coastal infiltration. Hizbullah's ability to target shipping - and possibly offshore oil and gas platforms - was exposed in the war with Israel in 2006 when Hizbullah came close to sinking an Israeli missile boat with an Iranian version of the Chinese C-802 missile. Hizbullah fighters have since hinted that they have acquired larger anti-ship missiles with double the 72-mile (116 km.) range of the C-802 variant.
Last year, Hizbullah leader Nasrallah warned that his organization now possesses the ability to target shipping along the entire length of Israel's coastline. Nasrallah even promised that if Israel threatens future Lebanese plans to tap its oil and gas reserves, "only the Resistance [Hizbullah] would force Israel and the world to respect Lebanon's right."19 In this context, one cannot dismiss the possibility that in time of conflict Hizbullah would use its weapons to target and hit Israel's gas installations in the Eastern Mediterranean basin.
Responding to this threat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in January that the offshore gas fields were a "strategic objective that Israel's enemies will try to undermine" and vowed that "Israel will defend its resources."
No doubt the U.S. has a keen interest in preventing any conflagration in the region, especially in an area where American drilling and oil and gas exploration companies are involved. A report in Ha'aretz20 pointed to the U.S. as having adopted the Lebanese position on the issue, but this has been denied by government spokesmen. It is clear that the U.S. will not blindly accept either of the two positions: the U.S. will follow the legal lines of international jurisdiction and encourage both parties to do so. In this realm it seems that the U.S. will advise the Lebanese government to exercise some restraint over Hizbullah and will signify that any military intervention by Hizbullah could come at the expense of Lebanese interests.
As for Israel, the Cabinet has already approved a budget to protect Israel's "strategic maritime energy sources." It would be a fair assessment that any damage incurred due to Hizbullah's activities would generate retaliation that would be aimed against the infrastructure of the Lebanese state.
But the Lebanese government IS Hezbullah....
What could go wrong?
Labels: C-802 missiles, Hezbullah, Lebanese-Israeli maritime borders
Lebanon likely loser in maritime resouce battle
After explaining that the battle between Israel and Lebanon over maritime resources is actually a four-way battle among Israel, Cyprus (which entered into a
maritime demarcation agreement this week with Israel), Lebanon and Turkey, James Dorsey explains that
Lebanon is the likely loser in that battle.
According to Dorsey, however, the protagonists are already taking action to address the legal void. "It's international waters, so you state your claim and whoever gets there first gets an advantage," he said. The Israelis now have that advantage, which Dorsey likened to "the old Marxist principle of possession is ownership."
While Turkey has stayed notably quiet on the latest Israel-Cyprus demarcation agreement, Lebanon disputes it on the grounds that Israel is laying claim to an area that partially infringes on territory claimed by Lebanon last year, a claim since recognized by the United Nations.
But Dorsey said that Lebanon's options for enforcing its claim are limited. The Lebanese could attempt to take legal action by bringing the claim to an international court or by petitioning the United Nations to intervene. But those efforts are sure to be long and tedious, said Dorsey, who added that Lebanon lacks a serious military option.
"I don't think they have a real option in terms of trying to change things on the ground, and I think the best you're going to see is a lot of saber rattling," he said. "It's motion without movement."
Furthermore, while there may be an ultimate need to accommodate Lebanon, the Israelis are loathe to do so, said Dorsey, particularly given the recent rise of Hezbollah within the Lebanese government.
"The Israelis at this point have no reason to be nice," he said. "I think what's going to happen is that the Israelis are going to go ahead and explore and produce, and so will the Cypriots and the Turks. And the Lebanese are going to have trouble getting their act together, so there will be nothing they can do about it."
Heh.
Israel Radio reported on Thursday that the actual area claimed by both Lebanon and Israel is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide and that no one knows for sure whether there is natural gas underneath those waters. Both the
Tamar and
Leviathan gas wells are clearly on the Israeli side and not claimed by Lebanon.
But the real key here is that like the
Shaba Farms and
seven villages claims, Hezbullah is looking for sources of conflict to maintain a territorial dispute between Lebanon and Israel. In that respect, it doesn't matter how much territory there is or how much gas there is underneath it.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Cyprus, Israel, Lebanese-Israeli maritime borders, Lebanon, Leviathon well, seven former Shiite villages, Shaba Farms, Tamar natural gas well, Turkey
US backing Lebanon in maritime dispute?
In an interview with Israel Radio on Sunday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman characterized as '
nonsense' reports that the United States is backing Lebanon in its dispute with Israel over the two countries'
maritime borders. But Haaretz is reporting that the Americans are in fact
backing Lebanon.
The Lebanese also sent their version to the United States, which conducted an expert review and endorsed the document. A senior Foreign Ministry official told Haaretz that the American diplomat in charge of the issue was Frederic Hof, who was responsible for Syria and Lebanon under the former U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell. Hof has kept the Israel-Lebanon brief despite Mitchell's resignation two months ago.
In April, Hof began shuttling between Beirut and Jerusalem. A senior administration official told Haaretz that Hof's main goal was to prevent the border from becoming a source of tension between Israel and Lebanon, which could give Hezbollah a pretext for targeting Israeli gas installations.
Beyond the political and diplomatic interest, the United States has an economic interest in keeping the parties calm, not least because American companies are involved in the search for gas an oil in Israel, Lebanon and Cyprus. Hof told his counterparts in Jerusalem that Israel should cooperate with setting the maritime border to prevent the creation of an "underwater Shaba Farms," referring to a contested area on the Israel-Lebanon border.
The Foreign Ministry official said Israel had asked the Americans to relay a warning to Lebanon on the matter. Foreign Ministry officials told Hof that Israel would not allow a provocation on the matter or an attack on Israeli gas installations. They said Israel would consider such an attack an attack on its sovereign territory and would retaliate "strongly" against Lebanon.
Hof responded by suggesting that Israel submit to the United Nations its own outlook on the border and try to launch a dialogue. Hof asked Israel not to turn the issue into a political spat but to see it as an economic and technical matter that could benefit all parties.
Israel rejected indirect talks via the United Nations, calling on Lebanon to begin negotiations on all border issues, not just the maritime border. The foreign and infrastructure ministries believe that Lebanon is claiming vast offshore territories that belong to Israel under international law.
"It's important to provide the UN with the Israeli version of the border as soon as possible, to react to Lebanon's unilateral move," a senior Foreign Ministry official told Haaretz. "Not responding could be interpreted as a tacit agreement. We must act fast to ensure Israel's economic rights in these areas."
What could go wrong?
Labels: Lebanese-Israeli maritime borders, Lebanon, oil and gas exploration
Israeli ambassador to Cyprus Michael Harari (right, with Cypriot Defense Minister Demetris Eliades) was expelled from an energy forum in Cyprus after the Lebanese Energy Minister refused to speak with an Israeli present (Hat Tip: Sunlight). 
