Lebanese sources say gas talks ongoing, Aoun committed to 1701
The indirect negotiations over the demarcation of the sea border between Lebanon and Israel are “still ongoing,” official Lebanese sources said on Thursday.
In remarks to LBCI television, the sources hoped the official Israeli response to Lebanon’s latest proposal “will come soon.”
“President Michel Aoun had warned in talks with U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein against the risks emanating from wasting time in the negotiations, saying that Lebanon needs its oil and gas to address the economic problems,” the sources added.
The sources also emphasized that Aoun is “committed to Resolution 1701,” which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The remarks come a day after Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel with military escalation if a future deal over the disputed maritime border does not come in Lebanon's favor. He warned that sending unarmed drones over the Karish gas field in the Mediterranean earlier this month was "a modest beginning to where the situation could be heading.”
"If we go to war, we might impose our conditions on the enemy," Nasrallah said, adding that if the Americans "don't give us our rights that are demanded by the state and if you don't allow companies to extract (oil) God knows what we will do. We will turn over the table in the face of the world."
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