Williams Meets Mansour, Will Address Lebanon’s Demarcation of Maritime Border at U.N.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams announced on Monday that he will bring up the issue of Lebanon’s demarcation of its maritime border at the United Nations on Thursday.

He said after holding talks with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour: “Lebanon must have access to its natural resources and must benefit from them and I want to see there is a law on exploration and exploitation fully implemented and foreign oil companies coming to Lebanon.”

He is scheduled to head to New York on Tuesday where he will discuss the sixth report on the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 at the international organization’s headquarters on Thursday.

“It’s not unusual in many countries in the world to have disputes over maritime boundaries,” Williams added.

Furthermore, he doubted that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon would be able to oversee the demarcation process, stressing that the U.N. will accept anything Lebanon and Israel agree upon.

On resolution 1701 and his report on it, he said: “I warmly welcome the personal commitment of the Foreign Minister and of the new government to the resolution.”

“The report looks over the previous three, four months. Inevitably we comment on the good things that have happened, the overall maintenance of stability but also on some of the problems that have arisen and how we find a way forward on those problems,” he added.

“In the last fourth months, this has been difficult because there has not been a government in Lebanon. Now we have a government in office and one that’s committed to 1701,” he stated.

On Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s tour of southern Lebanon and visit to the UNIFIL headquarters at Ras al-Naqoura, Williams said: “That was a very important demonstration of the new government’s support for UNIFIL and 1701.”