NNA – Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper wrote: While Israel revealed a new gas field off the shores of Haifa, a high-ranking Israeli official surprised yesterday (Thursday) by announcing that Prime Minister Yair Lapid rejects Lebanon’s demands to amend a draft agreement. demarcation of the maritime border, and threatened to stop participating in the negotiations and to respond to any military action against Israel by paying a heavy price.
In the wake of this development, the session called by Lapid for the Cabinet (the cabinet for political and security affairs in the Israeli government), turned from a session of ratification of the agreement to a session of deliberations on the expected developments. Lapid made it clear that the new Lebanese conditions are blackmail conditions for Israel that imply a retreat from the spirit of the agreement and harm Israel. So it must be rejected. In the event that Lebanon continues its position and is dragged behind “Hezbollah”, Israel “must be ready for any development, and it is ready.” Its efforts will now focus on pushing the company to extract gas from the Karish field, which is supposed to take place at the end of this month. Deliberations were held about how to respond if Hezbollah decided to carry out its threat to bomb the field.
Spokesmen for the Israeli and Lebanese governments have broadcast optimistic statements over the past days that herald an agreement on the basic issues of economic border demarcation and profit sharing, according to the proposal submitted by the American mediator, Amos Hochstein. They emphasized that only the frills of the final wordings of the agreement remained. However, Lebanon submitted reservations, which Israel considered as a retreat and submission to “Hezbollah”, which it rejected. The Israeli political source said that “Prime Minister Yair Lapid was informed of the details of the new fundamental changes that Lebanon requested to make to the agreement, and he instructed the negotiating team to reject them. Lapid made it clear that Israel will not give up its security and economic interests in any way, even if this means that no agreement will be reached soon».
The source added, “Israel will extract gas from the Karish platform when possible. And if Hezbollah or any other party tries to target the Karish platform or threaten us, the negotiations over the maritime borders will stop, and Hassan Nasrallah will have to explain to the citizens of Lebanon why there is no gas platform and an economic future for them.».
Lapid was joined by his defense minister, Benny Gantz, who said that “whether the agreement is signed or not, we are ready to defend our infrastructure and our sovereignty. And if Hezbollah seeks to target it, the military price that the state of Lebanon and Hezbollah will pay will be very heavy. We don’t get excited about going into battle, but we’re ready for it».
“I am familiar with the details of the agreement, and I can say that it is good for the country,” Energy Minister Karen Elharrar told Ynet. We did not give up one centimeter of the demands of the Ministry of Defense, and we will not give up either. And if the Lebanese do not want it, there will be no agreement».
In the wake of the new development, the head of the Israeli opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu, made statements in which he said that Lapid was playing a rejection of the agreement. He added: “The truth is that Lapid was negotiating quietly with Lebanon, and when Hezbollah threatened to bomb the gas fields, it acquiesced, backed down, and agreed to the formula of the agreement presented by the American mediator. He agreed because he is weak. Only when Likud and I campaigned vigorously against the agreement did Lapid back down. And there will be no solution to such issues without the presence of a strong prime minister in Israel who knows how to negotiate and how to vigorously defend Israel’s rights and interests.” “At the beginning of next month, our party will win the elections, we will handle these negotiations, and we will teach Lapid and others what courageous leadership is,” Netanyahu said.».
It should be noted that official Israeli authorities announced, on Thursday, the discovery of a new gas field in its economic waters in the Mediterranean. A senior source told the newspaper, Maarib, that preliminary estimates indicate that the production capacity of the field, which is called “Hermes”, ranged between 7 and 15 billion cubic meters of gas. The site indicated that the British-Greek Energy Company, which explores for gas in the region, discovered the field, opposite the shores of the town of Zichron Yaacov (the Palestinian town of Zamarin, which was demolished during the Nakba), 20 kilometers south of Haifa. He pointed out that the company informed the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange of its discovery of the field and its intention to continue drilling in the area in an attempt to find other gas reserves. The source pointed out that following the completion of work in the “Hermes” field, the “Satna” ship, which handles the drilling process, will move to the “Zanus” field, which is located in the “Block 12” area, to the south of the disputed “Kareesh” field with Lebanon. He added that the discovery of “gas reserves in the (Hermes) field leads to the belief that there is a possibility of discovering other gas reserves in this area (Block 31).)».
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