(Wall Street Journal Europe) Ariel Cohen - Both Israel and Lebanon have trillions of cubic feet of underwater natural gas and can benefit tremendously from these resources. All they need is the goodwill to negotiate a sea-border demarcation agreement. This usually occurs through bilateral negotiations or mutually agreed arbitration - not through UN border-dispute mechanisms, as Lebanon is now demanding. It's only now that Israel has identified substantial natural gas fields that Hizbullah, the Iranian and Syrian regimes' long arm in Lebanon, has decided to make an issue of the maritime borders. Hizbullah is now threatening to attack any Israeli gas projects - even those in undisputed waters. Hizbullah is armed with Chinese-designed, Iranian-made C-802 anti-ship missiles that could be devastating against future Israeli off-shore gas platforms and tankers. Hizbullah also has sea-born commando units. The writer is senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
2011-07-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive