NNA – Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper wrote: As Israel revealed a new gas field off the coast of Haifa, a senior Israeli official surprised yesterday (Thursday) by announcing that Prime Minister Yair Lapid rejects Lebanon’s demands for modify a draft agreement. of the maritime border, and threatened to stop participating in the negotiations and respond to any military action against Israel by paying a heavy price.
In the wake of this development, the session convened by Lapid for the Cabinet (the cabinet for political and security affairs of the Israeli government), moved 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 withdrawal 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 along with “Hezbollah”, Israel “must be ready for any development, and it is ready”. His efforts will now focus on the company’s drive to extract gas from the Karish field, which is expected to take place later this month. Discussions were held on how to respond if Hezbollah decided to carry out its threat to bomb the camp.
Spokesmen for the Israeli and Lebanese governments have released optimistic statements in recent days announcing an agreement on the fundamental issues of economic demarcation of borders and profit sharing, according to the proposal presented by the American mediator, Amos Hochstein. They pointed out that only the frills of the final wording of the agreement remained. However, Lebanon made reservations, which Israel considered a retreat and submission to “Hezbollah”, which it rejected. The Israeli political source said that “Prime Minister Yair Lapid has been briefed on the details of the new fundamental changes that Lebanon has requested to make to the agreement and has instructed the negotiating team to reject them. Lapid made it clear that Israel will in no way give up its economic and security interests, even if it means that no agreement will be reached any time soon.“.
The source added: “Israel will extract gas from the Karish platform whenever possible. And if Hezbollah or any other party tries to target the Karish platform or threaten us, maritime border negotiations will stop and Hassan Nasrallah will have to explain to Lebanese citizens why there is no gas platform and 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 tries to target it, the military price that the state of Lebanon and Hezbollah will pay will be very heavy. We are not thrilled to go into battle, but we are ready for it“.
“I know the details of the agreement and I can say it is good for the country,” Energy Minister Karen Elharrar told Ynet. We have not given up an inch of the demands of the Ministry of Defense, and we will not give up either. And if the Lebanese don’t want it, there will be no agreement“.
In the wake of the new development, Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu released statements in which he claimed Lapid was playing a rejection of the deal. He added: “The truth is that Lapid was quietly negotiating with Lebanon, and when Hezbollah threatened to bomb the gas fields, he agreed, backed off and accepted the deal formula presented by the American mediator. He accepted because it is. weak. Only when Likud and I campaigned vigorously against the deal did Lapid backtrack. And there will be no solution to such problems 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. ”“ Early next month, our party will win the elections, we will manage these negotiations and teach Lapid and others what courageous leadership is, ”Netanyahu said.“.
It should be noted that on Thursday, official Israeli authorities announced the discovery of a new gas field in its economic waters in the Mediterranean. A major source told the Maarib newspaper that preliminary estimates indicate that the production capacity of the field, called “Hermes”, ranged between 7 and 15 billion cubic meters of gas. The site indicated that the British-Greek Energy Company, which looks for gas in the region, discovered the field, facing the banks of the city of Zichron Yaacov (the Palestinian city of Zamarin, demolished during the Nakba), 20 kilometers south of Haifa. . He pointed out that the company has 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 more gas reserves. The source specified that following the completion of the works in the “Hermes” field, the “Satna” ship, which is in charge of the drilling process, will move to the “Zanus” field, which is located in the “Block 12” area. , for the south of the disputed field of “Kareesh” with Lebanon. He added that the discovery of “gas reserves in the (Hermes) field leads one to believe that there is the possibility of discovering other gas reserves in this area (block 31).) “.
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