(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - The government approved on Sunday the demarcation of Israel's northern maritime border with Lebanon, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement. The line demarcates economic rights in offshore territories that - with the discovery of vast natural gas reserves - have become very lucrative. The move to delineate the line was made in order to combat Lebanese claims to offshore territories that Israel claims as its own. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Cabinet: "The [maritime] line that Lebanon presented to the UN is significantly south of the Israeli line. It contradicts the line Israel has agreed upon with Cyprus, and what is more significant to me is that it contradicts the line that Lebanon itself concluded with Cyprus in 2007. Our goal is to establish the position of Israel regarding its maritime boundary, according to international maritime law." Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio on Sunday that reports that the U.S. backed Lebanon on the maritime border dispute are "nonsense."
2011-07-11 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive