Lebanese President Michel Sleiman said Monday that Lebanon will make use of all the legitimate means to defend its offshore gas reserves, and warned Israel against violating the international law.

“Lebanon is determined to defend its land and maritime borders, and to protect its rights and resources with legitimate means,” Sleiman said in a statement carried by the state-run National News Agency.
Israel’s approval on Sunday of a map demarcating its maritime borders with Lebanon has sparked a wave of angry reactions from Lebanon.
An Israeli cabinet session on Sunday said that Lebanon’s border demarcation, which was submitted by Beirut to the United Nations in August 2010, were significantly further south than those recognized by Israel. Israel is expected to submit its maritime border proposal to the UN for an opinion.
Lebanon’s proposal to the UN last year outlined the boundary of its exclusive economic zone in which oil and gas is contained. The zone is said to contain billions of cubic meters of fossil fuel, Xinhua reported.
Israel began drilling in its offshore fields north of the city of Haifa in various fields, including Tamar, which is believed to hold at least 8.4 trillion cubic feet of gas (about 238 billion cubic meters), and Leviathan, which is believed to have reserves of 16 trillion cubic feet (about 450 billion cubic meters).
Israel and Lebanon do not have diplomatic relations and are in a state of war.
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams had said on several occasions that the UN may assist Lebanon in protecting oil and gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean from Israeli exploitation.
Speaking to the Lebanese daily, The Daily Star, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour argued that Israel has expanded its maritime boundaries to put under its control more than 1,500 square kilometers of Lebanese waters in Lebanon’s Special Economic Zone.
In an interview with Lebanon’s English daily, The Daily Star, published on Tuesday, President Sleiman warned Israel against taking any unilateral measures to exploit Lebanon’s resources in the demarcation of disputed maritime borders.
Sleiman’s warning came as a dispute over offshore gas and oil reserves between the two countries, technically at war, worsened following the Israeli government’s approval of a map of its proposed maritime borders which Lebanon deemed an aggression and an infringement on its right to an exclusive economic zone.
“President Michel Sleiman warned against any unilateral decisions Israel might take on the issue of maritime borders in breach of international laws, as Israel did in several issues,” according to a statement released by the president’s office.
Sleiman affirmed “Lebanon’s determination and its readiness to defend its territory, its land and sea borders and protect its rights and its
[natural] wealth by all available and legitimate means,” the statement said.
He added that the issue of the maritime borders should be a main topic of discussion at the Cabinet’s first meeting Thursday after winning a vote of confidence in Parliament last week.
“This issue should be discussed and examined by the Cabinet for the executive authority to take the official position that will maintain Lebanon’s sovereignty on its territory and resources,” he said, according to the statement.
Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour told The Daily Star Sunday that Lebanon would file a complaint with the United Nations against Israel, after the Jewish state approved Sunday a map of its proposed maritime borders, which Lebanon viewed as an “aggression” on its gas and oil rights. Israel will submit the map to the UN for an opinion.
The Israeli map lays out maritime borders that conflict significantly with those proposed by Lebanon in its own submission to the UN last summer.
Hezbollah’s Minister of State for Administrative Reform Mohammad Fneish said if Israel tried to exploit Lebanon’s natural resources in the demarcation of the maritime border, the army, the people and the resistance would confront “this aggression.”
“The state must do its duty by confirming its rights and border demarcation at the United Nations by providing all needed legal documents. But if the Israeli enemy staged an attack on Lebanon’s natural rights, it’s then the duty of the state, the army, the people and the resistance to confront this aggression and defend our rights,” Fneish told The Daily Star Monday.
Responding to March 14 parties’ scathing attacks on his party’s weapons, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah indicated in a speech last year that the resistance was ready to help the Lebanese state attain its offshore oil and gas rights in the face of Israeli threats. Mansour said that Israel’s demarcation of its maritime borders with Cyprus had infringed on Lebanon’s right to its economic zone.
“When the border line between Israel and Cyprus was demarcated, this harmed the Lebanese side. We will not accept this at all and we reserve our right and use all means authorized legally and internationally to prove our right and demand these rights,” Mansour told reporters at the Foreign Ministry Monday.
Asked what steps the government planned to take to face the Israeli infringement, Mansour said: “The specialized ministries must act to draw up a practical study on the extent of the Israeli violation of the
[economic] zone and determine Lebanon’s losses as a result of this violation and define the zone in a very accurate way. In the light of this, the Lebanese government will take the appropriate measure. Lebanese diplomacy will undertake moves with the United Nations and international organizations to ask Israel to comply with international law and the Maritime Law.”
He said Israeli threats will not affect Lebanon’s position to gain its rights.
Israel has been moving to develop several large offshore natural gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean, some shared with Cyprus, that it hopes could help it to become an energy exporter. But its development plans have stirred controversy with Lebanon, which argues the gas fields lie inside its territorial waters.
Lebanon’s proposal to the UN last year outlined the boundary of its exclusive economic zone in which oil and gas is contained. The zone is said to contain billions of cubic meters of fossil fuel.
Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi said Lebanon has always abided by international laws and the Maritime Law.
“We will demarcate the remaining
[part] of our
[maritime] border and send it to the United Nations… Israel does not care about laws and world orders. It does not comply with international resolutions or the United Nations,” Qortbawi told the Voice of Lebanon radio station. He said Lebanon’s letter to the UN contained maps and evidence that support its maritime borders with Israel.
The Kataeb (Phalange) Party called on the Lebanese state to take quick measures through the United Nations “to assert Lebanon’s rights and prevent any attack on its basin resources be it a sea or land attack.”