Lebanon and Cyprus agreed on Friday to implement a common formula to delimit maritime borders the day after Beirut concluded an agreement with Israel that allows the two countries to invest their gas resources in the Mediterranean.
And the Lebanese presidency said in a statement on Friday evening that “a formula has been reached and agreed to implement it in accordance with the legal procedures in place relating to the modification of maritime borders,” and Lebanon and Cyprus agreed on Friday to speed up their speeches. to remove the pending differences in this file.
“We are very confident of having new agreements that will make our cooperation easier,” said Cypriot presidential envoy Tassos Tzionis, after a meeting he held with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, in the presence of relevant Lebanese ministers and officials, underlining that “there is no problem between Lebanon and Cyprus that cannot be solved.” Easily”.
“We have had very friendly and constructive discussions on the boundary agreement and related maritime issues,” he added, noting that “times are very good now and we are very optimistic, and this is what we need to start energy operations. at sea”.
Lebanon and Cyprus had signed an agreement on the borders of the exclusive economic zone in 2007, but it was not ratified in Parliament, due to the discrepancy between Lebanon and Israel on the disputed maritime zone area.
With Lebanon and Israel having concluded the maritime border demarcation agreement last Thursday, which allows Beirut to start exploration and Tel Aviv to start producing gas from an area with which they were in conflict, Cyprus, which in its vault seeks to be a regional player in terms of energy resources – hopes to “resolve maritime issues” with Lebanon. .
“After the agreement (with Israel) was reached at point 23 south, the Cypriot delegation asked to visit us,” Lebanese parliamentary vice president Elias Abu Saab said at a press conference after the meeting.
He felt that “cooperation with Cyprus is not the same as cooperation with Israelis, the enemy state”.
Lebanon cannot determine the exclusive economic zone borders with Cyprus without an understanding with Syria, with which the lack of maritime border demarcation is a major problem, and two patches are found in Lebanese waters (No. 1 and 2 ) in front of two Syrian spots.
The Lebanese presidency announced that an official delegation would go to Damascus to discuss the issue last Thursday, but this did not happen. Later, the Syrian ambassador to Beirut, Ali Abdel Karim, said there had been “ambiguity” in the setting of the date.
Abu Saab said: “We asked to communicate again with friends in Syria.” He added: “We and the Cypriot side have agreed that we cannot determine today on the one hand what the borders are, without communication and understanding between us and Syria”.
Interestingly, Syria has repeatedly refused to delimit land and sea borders with Lebanon.
