What the new Lebanon-Israel maritime border deal means for everyone

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Updated 14 October 2022
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What the new Lebanon-Israel maritime border deal means for everyone

  • US-mediated talks over the disputed maritime border dragged on for more than a decade
  • The contention centered around access to key gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean

LONDON: Ten years after the US began its mediation efforts, Lebanon and Israel have finally reached an agreement delineating their maritime border in what pundits are describing as a “historic” moment. However, some observers are taking a more cautious view.

“It’s at least 10 years overdue,” said Ambassador Frederic Hof, a former director of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, who served as US mediator in 2012 under President Barack Obama.

“We need to be cautious at this point. There is still an elongated ratification process in Israel. There is a question of whether, after the Nov. 1 elections, the deal would be sustained if there’s a change in government,” he told Arab News.




A platform of the Leviathan natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea as seen from the Israeli northern coastal beach of Nasholim. (AFP)

“On the Lebanese side, there are a couple of questions. The obvious question is: Are there indeed marketable natural gas deposits under Lebanese waters? And, given the fact that there will not likely be any revenues for five years, will the Lebanese political system undergo some changes that would enable the Lebanese people to benefit from all of this?”

The dispute goes back to 2012, when the two countries failed to reach an agreement over the location of their shared maritime border. Israel initially pushed for Line 1 (see map), while Lebanon favored Line 29. 

Hof, who was the first US mediator appointed to the process, proposed a line that lay closer to the Israelis’ preferred option. In the end, however, the border that was agreed is Line 23, which is closer to Lebanon’s preferred boundary.

At the heart of the dispute are two offshore natural gas fields: the untapped Qana field in Lebanon’s territorial waters and the Karish field in Israeli territory. The contested claims to the resources escalated in July when Hezbollah, the Lebanese Iran-backed militia, launched a drone attack on the Karish field. Israeli air defenses managed to shoot down all three drones before they reached their target. It is hoped this week’s border agreement will stave off similar incidents.

According to leaked details of the deal, revenues from gas extracted from the Qana field will be split between Lebanon and French energy company Total, and 17 percent of Total’s revenues will go to Israel. Israel will continue to have exclusive rights to the Karish field.




United Nations peacekeeping force vehicles patrol in Naqura, south of the Lebanese city of Tyre, on the border with Israel on June 6, 2022. (AFP)

Although the deal settles the maritime border issue, it does not affect the yet-to-be recognized land border between the two countries, the so-called Blue Line that was demarcated in 2000 and is supervised by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.

Reflecting on why a maritime border agreement could not be reached 10 years ago when the process began, Hof said the then government of Najib Mikati — who now serves as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister — had already started to “steadily fall apart.”

He added: “Now, the decision-making process seems to be in the hands of the three presidents in Lebanon (the president, prime minister and speaker of parliament) and unless things change, which I don’t think they will, all three seem to agree that Lebanon did well in this mediation.”




Lebanese President Michel Aoun (R) meeting with US envoy Amos Hochstein and US Ambassador Dorothy Shea (L) at the Presidential Palace in Baabda on June 14, 2022 . (Dalati & Nohra photo via AFP)

Others, such as Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Levant analyst for Tablet Magazine told Arab News that “what changed now is that the Biden administration abandoned the earlier framework of dividing the disputed area along a 55:45 ratio, and managed to press a pliant lame duck government to concede to 100 per cent of Hezbollah's demands.”

US officials also view the maritime deal, mediated by Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s senior advisor for energy security, as a diplomatic win that will ultimately improve overall security and stability in the region.

“At the end of the day, the US was able to mediate a deal between Lebanon and Israel — two enemy countries — to get into a maritime border deal that they think would stabilize the situation between both countries and make it harder for them to go to war,” Laury Haytayan, the Middle East and North Africa director at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, told Arab News.

Indeed, she believes that Israel, which already enjoys sufficient energy supplies, correctly identified the security benefits offered by a deal that favored Lebanon’s territorial claims over Israeli economic self-interest.

“If Lebanon is stable, and Lebanon focuses on its economy, they think that they will be less interested in war” and, in turn, less dependent on Hezbollah and Iran, Haytayan added.

Officials in Beirut likely had other concerns in mind, however. As Lebanon faces economic catastrophe, the caretaker government is eager to show it is playing ball with the international community’s demands for reforms in exchange for assistance.




Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah react as the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah addresses them through a giant screen on August 9, 2022. (AFP)

Haytayan said Lebanon’s primary aim was to place “a card in the hands of the political class to use to talk to the international community and to talk to the Americans for the first time, so that the Americans will not continue with the sanctions.”

Since Lebanon’s economic collapse in 2019, which was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and the devastating explosion at Beirut’s port in August, 2020, the US has put sustained pressure on the Lebanese government to address a culture of rampant corruption.

Among those placed under sanctions by the US is President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, who is a former foreign minister and the current head of the Free Patriotic Movement.




Gebran Bassil, the current head of Lebanon's Free Patriotic Movement. (AFP)

Because of the reputation of the Lebanese elite for lining their own pockets at the expense of the public purse, citizens cannot help but feel pessimistic about the prospect of any oil revenues that result from the border deal being put to good use.

“I think the threat to revenues not being used for the benefit of the Lebanese people, and for the rebuilding of Lebanon, comes from the existence of a totally corrupt and totally incompetent political class in Lebanon, which enjoys the support and protection of Hezbollah,” said Hof.

Although it will be at least five years before Lebanon sees any financial return on gas explorations, there are several indirect, short-term gains on offer, said Haytayan.

A public commitment given by Total that it will begin drilling operations in the Qana field could help to convince more businesses to invest in Lebanon, which would give the Lebanese government additional “cards to play with negotiators, with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the international community, the US and Europeans,” said Haytayan. “This would ease the pressure for reform that has been put on them for three-and-a-half years.”




Total Energies has committed to begin drilling operations in the Qana field once Israel and Lebanon settle their maritime border dispute. (AFP file)

US President Joe Biden called his Lebanese counterpart, Aoun, to congratulate Lebanon on the maritime deal.

“Everybody is happy that Lebanon has done this deal with Israel, so there is political energy injected into the survival (of Lebanon’s political class),” Haytayan said.

The maritime border deal is no doubt a major step forward. However, Hof doubts it will lead to any normalization of relations between Israel and Lebanon in the near future. Instead, he views the coming years as a test of the willingness of Lebanese politics for reform and of the elite’s readiness to put the needs of the public ahead of their own.

“Five years is the estimate one most often sees (for gas exploration),” said Hof. “This gives the Lebanese people five years to do their best to create a system reflecting rule of law, accountability, transparency, and to build a Lebanese state that is capable of using these God-given resources for the benefit of the Lebanese people.”

As for Badra, he explained that the deal lead Hezbollah to “emerge clearly as the Biden administration’s, and France’s, primary interlocutor in Lebanon -- a recognition that it is the only party that matters in, and that dominates, Lebanon."

“The Biden administration not only assisted Hezbollah’s optics of coercing Israel to concede under fire, but also, the deal itself cements France's partnership with Hezbollah, along with other potential foreign investments.”

 


Palestinian president says Hamas must hand over weapons in Gaza

Updated 53 min 9 sec ago
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Palestinian president says Hamas must hand over weapons in Gaza

  • Mahmoud Abbas said Hamas must recognize that there should be ‘one system, one law, and one legitimate weapon’
  • Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 after armed clashes with PA forces, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 700 Palestinians

LONDON: The Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas reaffirmed that Hamas will not take part in governing the coastal enclave of the post-war Gaza Strip during a meeting with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in Amman.

Abbas said Hamas must surrender its weapons to the PA and participate in political actions aligned with the principles of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad is part of the PLO, and both groups have long rejected calls to join what Palestinians consider their sole political representative since the 1960s.

Abbas said that Hamas must recognize that in the Palestinian territories, there should be “one system, one law, and one legitimate weapon,” during his meeting on Sunday evening with Blair, who served as the special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East from 2007 to 2015.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 after armed clashes with PA forces, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 700 Palestinians, according to an official tally. Since then, it has engaged in several conflicts with Israel, the most recent being the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, which resulted in the deaths and abduction of several hundred people and prompted an ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, which has killed over 58,000 Palestinians.

Abbas called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and the flow of humanitarian aid.

He stressed the need for a two-state solution and the importance of the French-Saudi-sponsored conference, scheduled for the end of July in New York, to gain support for establishing a Palestinian state.


Gaza truce talks limp on, Trump hopeful to have deal ‘straightened out’

Updated 4 sec ago
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Gaza truce talks limp on, Trump hopeful to have deal ‘straightened out’

  • The US is backing a 60-day ceasefire with a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and talks to end the conflict

DOHA: Stuttering Gaza ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas entered a second week on Monday, with US President Donald Trump still hopeful of a breakthrough and as more than 20 people were killed on the ground.

The indirect negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha, appeared deadlocked at the weekend after both sides blamed the other for blocking a deal for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of hostages.

In Gaza, the Palestinian territory’s civil defense agency said at least 22 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes on Monday in and around Gaza City, and Khan Younis in the south.

One strike on a tent in Khan Younis on Sunday killed the parents and three brothers of a young Gazan boy, who only survived as he was outside getting water, the boy’s uncle told AFP.

Belal Al-Adlouni called for revenge for “every drop of blood” saying it “will not be forgotten and will not die with the passage of time, nor with displacement or with death.”

AFP reporters in southern Israel meanwhile saw large plumes of smoke in northern Gaza, where the military said fighter jets had pounded Hamas targets over the weekend.

Trump, who met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington last week, is keen to secure a truce in the 21-month war, which was sparked by Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

“Gaza, we are talking and hopefully we’re going to get that straightened out over the next week,” he told reporters late on Sunday, echoing similarly optimistic comments he made on July 4.

A Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks told AFP on Saturday that Hamas rejected Israeli proposals to keep troops in over 40 percent of Gaza and plans to move Palestinians into an enclave on the border with Egypt.

In response, a senior Israeli political official accused Hamas of inflexibility and trying to deliberately scupper the talks by “clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement.”

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs Varsen Aghabekian Shahin headed to Brussels on Monday for talks between the EU and its Mediterranean neighbors.

But the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority denied media reports that any meeting between the two was on the agenda.

In Israel, Netanyahu has said he would be ready to enter talks for a more lasting ceasefire when a deal for a temporary truce is agreed and only when Hamas lays down its weapons.

But he is under pressure to quickly wrap up the war, with military casualties mounting and with public frustration both at the continued captivity of the hostages and a perceived lack of progress in the conflict.

Politically, his fragile governing coalition is holding, for now, but Netanyahu is seen as beholden to a minority of far-right ministers in prolonging an increasingly unpopular conflict.

He also faces a backlash over the feasibility and ethics of a plan to build a so-called “humanitarian city” from scratch in southern Gaza to house displaced Palestinians if and when a ceasefire takes hold.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has described the proposed facility as a “concentration camp” and Israel’s own security establishment is reported to be unhappy at the plan.

Israeli media said the costs were discussed at a security cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s office on Sunday night, just hours before his latest court appearance in a long-running corruption trial on Monday.

Hamas’s attacks on Israel in 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

A total of 251 hostages were taken that day, of which 49 are still being held, including 27 that the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s military reprisals have killed 58,026 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza.


Gaza ‘humanitarian city’ would be ‘concentration camp’: Ex-Israeli PM

Updated 14 July 2025
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Gaza ‘humanitarian city’ would be ‘concentration camp’: Ex-Israeli PM

  • Ehud Olmert slams proposal by defense minister, saying it amounts to ethnic cleansing
  • He condemns settler crimes in West Bank, calling extremist Israeli ministers ‘enemies from within’

London: Plans to build a “humanitarian city” for displaced Palestinians in Gaza would amount to creating a concentration camp, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said.

The plan, outlined by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz last week and backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, proposes to relocate around 600,000 Palestinians — and eventually Gaza’s entire population of over 2 million — to the site in Rafah. Once there, they would only be allowed to leave if traveling abroad.

“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” Olmert told The Guardian. “If they (Palestinians) will be deported into the new ‘humanitarian city,’ then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing.”

He added: “When they build a camp where they (say they plan to) ‘clean’ more than half of Gaza, then the inevitable understanding of the strategy of this (is that) it is not to save (Palestinians).

“It is to deport them, to push them and to throw them away. There is no other understanding that I have, at least.”

Israeli legal experts and journalists wrote to Katz last week warning that “under certain conditions it could amount to the crime of genocide.”

Olmert also condemned the uptick in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, criticizing complicity by Israeli authorities and calling the deaths of two men recently, including a US citizen, war crimes.

“(It is) unforgivable. Unacceptable. There are continuous operations organised, orchestrated in the most brutal, criminal manner by a large group,” he said.

“There is no way that they can operate in such a consistent, massive and widespread manner without a framework of support and protection which is provided by the (Israeli) authorities in the (Occupied) Territories.”

Discussing extreme right-wing Israeli Cabinet ministers pushing the violence in the West Bank and using language such as “cleanse” in relation to Gaza, Olmert called them “the enemy from within,” warning that their rhetoric and actions would fuel anti-Israel sentiment.

“In the US there is more and more and more expanding expressions of hatred to Israel,” he said. “We make a discount to ourselves saying: ‘They are antisemites.’ I don’t think that they are only antisemites, I think many of them are anti-Israel because of what they watch on television, what they watch on social networks.

“This is a painful but normal reaction of people who say: ‘Hey, you guys have crossed every possible line.’”

Olmert said that although he backed the initial invasion of Gaza after the October 2023 Hamas attack, he is “ashamed and heartbroken” at how Israel’s government has prosecuted the war and abandoned peace negotiations.

“What can I do to change the attitude, except for number one, recognising these evils, and number two, to criticise them and to make sure the international public opinion knows there are (other) voices, many voices in Israel?” he asked.

Saying he believes the Israeli military’s actions have caused “the killing of a large number of non-involved people,” he added: “I cannot refrain from accusing this government of being responsible for war crimes committed.”

However, he voiced hope that peace and a two-state solution are still possible, telling The Guardian that he is working with former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Qidwa to lobby the international community to help make it happen.


Israel strikes military tanks in southern Syria as Syrian forces clash with Druze militias

Updated 14 July 2025
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Israel strikes military tanks in southern Syria as Syrian forces clash with Druze militias

  • Fighting between Druze militiamen and Bedouin tribal fighters was the first time that sectarian violence erupted inside the city of Sweida itself

DAMASCUS: Israel has struck military tanks in southern Syria as Syrian government forces and Bedouin tribes clash with Druze militias there.
Dozens of people have been killed in the fighting between local militias and clans in Syria ‘s Sweida province. Government security forces that were sent to restore order Monday also clashed with local armed groups.
The Interior Ministry has said more than 30 people died and nearly 100 others have been injured in that fighting.
Dozens of people have been killed in fighting between local militias and clans in Syria ‘s Sweida province, where government security forces sent to restore order Monday also clashed with local armed groups.
The Interior Ministry said more than 30 people died and nearly 100 others have been injured. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor reported at least 50 dead, including two children and six members of the security forces.
Clashes initially broke out between armed groups from the Druze religious minority and Sunni Bedouin clans, the observatory said, with some members of the government security forces “actively participating” in support of the Bedouins.
Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine Al-Baba told the state-run state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV that government forces entered Sweida in the early morning to restore order.
“Some clashes occurred with outlawed armed groups, but our forces are doing their best to prevent any civilian casualties,” he said.
The observatory said the clashes started after a series of kidnappings between both groups, which began when members of a Bedouin tribe in the area set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a young Druze man.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the observatory, said the conflict started with the kidnapping and robbery of a Druze vegetable seller, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings.
Syria’s defense and interior ministries were deploying personnel to the area to attempt to restore order.
The Interior Ministry described the situation as a dangerous escalation that “comes in the absence of the relevant official institutions, which has led to an exacerbation of the state of chaos, the deterioration of the security situation, and the inability of the local community to contain the situation despite repeated calls for calm.”
Factions from the Druze minority have been suspicious of the new authorities in Damascus after former President Bashar Assad fled the country during a rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups in December. Earlier this year, Druze groups in Sweida clashed with security forces from the new government.
The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. In Syria, they largely live in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus, mainly in Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya to the south.
The Druze developed their own militias during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war. Since Assad’s fall, different Druze factions have been at odds over whether to integrate with the new government and armed forces.


Wizz Air to exit Abu Dhabi operations

Updated 14 July 2025
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Wizz Air to exit Abu Dhabi operations

  • Wizz said geopolitical instability had led to repeated airspace closures around Abu Dhabi, hitting demand
  • Failure to secure the flying rights for certain routes had also meant it was unable to grow in the region

LONDON: Low-cost carrier Wizz Air said on Monday it was quitting its Abu Dhabi operation after six years to focus on its main European market, citing geopolitical instability and limited market access.

Wizz, which originally focused on central and eastern Europe but expanded into Britain, Italy and Austria, said in future it would concentrate on its much more profitable European business.

Wizz said the geopolitical instability had led to repeated airspace closures around Abu Dhabi, hitting demand, while the impact of the hot environment in the Middle East had hurt engine efficiency, making it hard to operate its low-cost model.

Failure to secure the flying rights for certain routes had also meant it was unable to grow in the region as it had hoped, the airline said.

“They just couldn’t make money out of the Middle East,” Davy analyst Stephen Furlong said.

Wizz said it will stop local flights from Sept. 1, 2025 and would be contacting customers regarding refunds.

“Supply chain constraints, geopolitical instability, and limited market access have made it increasingly difficult to sustain our original ambitions,” Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi said in a statement.

“While this was a difficult decision, it is the right one given the circumstances,” he added.

Wizz Air is in talks with Airbus about scaling back its order for 47 A321XLR, a longer range aircraft, and converting some of them to regular A321 jet.

“We have 47 XLRs on order. We are going to scale that back,” Varadi said.

“We have conversion rights for the majority of that of that aircraft order. So we are talking to the manufacturer.”