Troubled waters

by Mona Sukkarieh March 12, 2018

written by Mona Sukkarieh March 12, 2018

Satterfield's shuttle diplomacy has so far not found solution to dispute.

A comment made by Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman at a Tel Aviv conference on January 31 sparked outrage in Lebanon, bringing the issue of the maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Israel back into the spotlight and catching Washington’s attention once again. The Obama administration started mediating between Lebanon and Israel to help contain the dispute in 2012, but little happened on this front after President Trump took office in 2017. It seemed to all parties that mediation was no longer a priority for the US. Then, in October, during Lebanon’s first oil and gas licensing round, a consortium of companies led by France’s Total bid on Block 9, which includes a disputed maritime area. The bid rekindled interest in the dispute, but the buzz was discreet, confined to experts and diplomatic circles, until it was thrust out in the open again when Liberman described Lebanon’s offshore tender as

Mona Sukkarieh

Mona Sukkarieh is the cofounder of Middle East Strategic Perspectives (http://www.mesp.me), a Beirut based political risk consultancy

1 comment

Fuad Jawad March 13, 2018 - 4:29 PM

A very good article, Mona…
And you have raised an excellent question: Why did Lebanon sign a border agreement with Cyprus in 2007, more than two years before it had a precise definition of the borders of its EEZ?
It was because of the technical paper presented by Dr. Peace at Bahrain Petroleum Conference on Lebanon’s Oil & Gas prospectivity offshore. The government of Lebanon rushed to the negotiating table with Cyprus, blind-folded, to buy the time until it has the opportunity to submit its case to the UN. The Lebanese way, you know!

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Troubled waters

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