Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, stated on Friday that Israel is not free to begin oil and gas exploration in the disputed maritime border area between the two countries. Nasrallah added in a televised speech, "If the enemy thinks it can act as it wants before this discussion is resolved, it is mistaken."
The Lebanese cabinet raised the issue with the UN permanent representative and others in the international community after Israel awarded a contract to the American Halliburton oilfield services company for offshore drilling in the Mediterranean, seeking clarification on whether the drilling operations would take place in disputed areas.
There is a dispute between Lebanon and Israel over the demarcation of their maritime borders, which could enable Lebanon to extract valuable gas reserves amid its worst financial crisis ever. Israel is already pumping gas from large offshore fields.
The two countries have been engaged in intermittent US-mediated talks since October last year in an attempt to resolve the issue. Nasrallah said, "I will not make statements now so as not to complicate the negotiations, but certainly the resistance in Lebanon, at the right time and moment, will act regarding this issue when it finds that Lebanon's oil and gas, even in the disputed area, are at risk, and it is capable of acting on this basis."
The US mediator for the indirect talks, Amos Hochstein, visited Beirut this week and stated that a period of shuttle diplomacy will precede any return to indirect negotiations between the two countries, similar to those held in October 2020 at the UN peacekeeping base in Naqoura, Lebanon.
