The newspaper "Al-Liwaa" pointed out that Lebanon is awaiting the return of Amos Hochstein, the American mediator in the maritime border demarcation file between Lebanon and Israel, to Beirut with the Israeli response regarding what he brought in terms of the Lebanese stance on the various raised points. It is noted that his trip to Israel has been postponed until next week.
Notably, the decision by the caretaker Minister of Energy, Walid Fayad, to extend the deadline for applications for the second licensing round to December 15 offers additional space for companies other than those currently operating in Lebanese maritime waters to prepare their paperwork and files for competition. This step is certainly within the context of the American role in organizing the extraction of gas from both Israeli and Lebanese territorial waters, as part of compensating for the shortage caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war and returning to the paper war between the White House and the Kremlin, including energy papers.
According to experts involved in this file, the Lebanese gamble has surpassed external aid, including negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, moving towards investing in the energy sector from gas to oil and fuels to add a significant element to the financial recovery of the heavily burdened Lebanese treasury, which is unable even to provide salaries for employees and retirees, unless a financial miracle occurs, one of whose points could be expediting the approval of the budget.
In this context, Western diplomatic sources have ruled out that the indirect negotiation file with Israel for maritime border demarcation would reach a final agreement on the disputed areas anytime soon, as some promote, in preparation for starting drilling operations and extracting oil and gas. They stated that the responsible authority in Lebanon, specifically the presidency of the republic, which has repeatedly stated that the negotiation regarding the maritime border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel and the signing of agreements concerning it is within the constitutional powers of President Michel Aoun, has wasted the past years procrastinating and has drowned in internal conflicts, boasting about obstructing negotiations for narrow populist calculations that are unreliable and unqualified to complete the negotiation file to reach a final agreement.
The sources anticipated that the continuation of the American mediation track between Lebanon and Israel would be postponed until after President Michel Aoun's term ends and the election of a new president, as the remaining time in his term is very short. The Lebanese presidency officials have wasted many months since the American mediator presented his proposals last February to accelerate decisions on this file, consuming all this time without any utility, while the countries concerned with extracting gas and oil assets in the Mediterranean, including Israel, have been doing everything possible to complete the required procedures at a swift pace.
The sources considered that the almost unified Lebanese response received by the American mediator Amos Hochstein the day before yesterday, although it pushes the negotiation file with Israel forward, contradicts in some aspects with the proposals that the American mediator previously brought to Lebanon and with the framework agreement reached between Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the American side after years of American mediation. This means that it will be subject to back-and-forth negotiation with Israel, and thus will take longer than expected, especially with the American administration busy with global oil issues due to the war in Ukraine. Therefore, it is likely that the entire file will be postponed to the new American administration.
Additionally, Western diplomatic sources confirmed to "Al-Jumhuriya" that Hochstein's visit reflects Washington's seriousness in achieving a rapid agreement between Lebanon and Israel regarding their maritime borders. They pointed out that the essence of this visit is to avoid wasting more time for Lebanon and Israel, and what has emerged from the results of Hochstein's discussions in Beirut indicates that it has paved the way for the Lebanese and Israeli sides to return to the negotiation table regarding the borders.
