Israel and Lebanon have signed the agreement on the maritime border between them, after the Israeli government approved the outline agreement this morning. Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked was the only government minister who voted against it.
For Lebanon, President Michel Aoun signed a letter approving the agreement deal at his palace in Baabda, while for Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed in Jerusalem. US envoy Amos Hochstein, who brokered the deal, was in attendance in Lebanon, and handed Aoun a letter from US President Joe Biden. Hochstein is due to meet Lapid tomorrow.
Delegations from the two sides handed signed copies of the agreement to US officials at the UN base at Naqoura, on the provisional Israel-Lebanon land border, and gave the coordinates of the new maritime border to UN officials. The Lebanese insisted that there should be no joint signing ceremony or joint photograph.
Under the agreement, which has proved controversial, the border between the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Israel and Lebanon is set a Line 23, as Lebanon demanded, thus transferring 860 square kilometers to Lebanese economic control. This area contains about half of the Qana/Sidon gas prospect, leaving a small portion of it that extends beyond Line 23 in Israeli hands.
Lebanon will manage production of gas from the Qana/Sidon field (assuming gas is discovered) through French company Total and its partner, Eni of Italy. Israel is due to receive royalties on account of the part of the field remaining within its EEZ (about 17%), under an agreement to be negotiated with Total.
The Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources and the Ministry of Finance Accountant General are conducting the negotiations with Total on the royalty mechanism. The amount Israel will receive will be in accordance with the exploratory drilling that will begin shortly, and is expected to be anywhere between zero and $15 billion over the years.
At the opening of the government meeting, Lapid said, "This is an agreement that strengthens and fortifies Israel’s security and our freedom of action against Hezbollah and the threats from the north. There is a rare consensus across all the security services that the agreement is vital. This is a diplomatic achievement. Not every day does an enemy country recognize the State of Israel, in a written agreement, before the entire international community. Not every day do the US and France stand behind us and provide security and economic guarantees for an agreement.
"And of course, this is an economic achievement. Yesterday, production began from the Karish reservoir. Israel will receive 17% of the profits from the Qana/Sidon field, the Lebanese reservoir, which will inject money into the economy that will be used for welfare and health, education and security."
As reported by "Globes", on the basis of Line 23, some five square kilometers of Israeli territorial waters are being transferred to Lebanon. The line of the northern territorial border is the line of buoys that Israel set up after the withdrawal from the buffer zone in Lebanon in 2000. Lebanon has not recognized this line, and the agreement states that it is still in disputed territory, and that negotiations on resolving the dispute will take place later.
Leader of the Opposition Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview that if he was elected prime minister he would "know how to deal with the agreement, as I dealt with the Oslo Accords after I was elected." Two weeks ago, Netanyahu said that he would cancel the agreement if he was elected, but his subsequent statements on the matter have been more moderate. Likud Knesset member Yariv Levin said that the best way to cancel the agreement, if it was decided to do so, would be by a vote in the Knesset.
A Knesset election is due to take place in Israel on Tuesday, November 1.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 27, 2022.
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