“Lebanon did not want to take part in this due to Israel’s involvement hence, it stayed outside of the talks,” said Beeri. In 2010, Israel and Cyprus reached a former maritime border agreement, giving Cyprus access to the Aphrodite gas reserve.
Meanwhile, Lebanon has found itself shut out from other regional arrangements as well due to its paralysis. ‘Not a green light to normalization with Israel’ Syria and Russia are not the only winners from this situation Hezbollah is likely to receive “gas coupons” from discoveries in the area from Syria’s Bashar Assad regime in the event of a discovery of a gas field.
The only exception is the protest over the matter by the head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Gaegae, in 2021,” he stated. “The Syrians have conducted gas searches, and no one in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, has said a word. Since then, “no one in the Lebanese government has dared confront the Syrians,” said Beeri. Instead, Lebanon demarcated its maritime borders independently in 2011, causing a rare complaint from Syria in 2014 to the United Nations over the issue.Īccording to the current situation, Syria’s Block 1 zone overlaps with Lebanon’s Block 2-meaning that Syria has taken 750 square kilometers of maritime territory and began searching for gas using Russian company Capital Oil. The Syrians have ‘taken a bite’ from gas reserves to the north-and the maritime border between Syria and Lebanon has never been finalized,” noted Beeri. “Lebanon has been out of the economic waters game for a long time. In addition, according to the plan, Jordan will link its electrical grid to Lebanon’s via Syria to increase the power supply.Īoun’s announcement comes after Lebanon once again found itself “on the bench” on the issue of underwater gas reserves as other regional actors finalized maritime borders and secured their access to such resources, said Beeri, who served for 20 years in the Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence Directorate. Last year, regional Arab states and the United States hammered out the details of a plan designed to rescue Lebanon from its severe energy crisis by transferring Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon via pipelines that run from the Sinai Peninsula into Jordan and through Syria to feed Lebanon’s Deir Ammar power plant, which has a 450-megawatt capacity. “The Americans are pushing strongly for an agreement,” he said. (res.) Tal Beeri, head of the research department at the Alma Center, a defense research center in northern Israel, told JNS. The developments represent an American push to seal a border agreement as part of Washington’s overall desire to get additional gas to Lebanon, Maj.