US officials have said talks between Israel and Lebanon on the land border will be held on a “separate track.”
Officials in Jerusalem emphasized that the talks should by no means be mistaken as the beginning of a normalization process similar to those with the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain.
On Tuesday, a senior official in the Energy Ministry said that the disagreement under discussion between Jerusalem and Beirut was small, and expressed cautious optimism about settling it quickly.
“If the other side comes to the talks with a pragmatic approach, I hope that we can solve the dispute and move forward within a short period of time — weeks, months,” the official told diplomatic reporters in a briefing, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Of course, if the other side comes with the intention to reach another victory over the ‘Zionist enemy,’ they can continue to celebrate victories like they did for the last 10 years,” he added sarcastically, saying that the current Israeli-Lebanese argument about the exact delineation of the maritime borders has been ongoing for a decade.
“The issue is important to us. It’s even more important to the other side,” the official added. “We already have [natural] gas reservoirs that provide for our local needs. We no longer import crude oil and gas and diesel fuel for our power stations. Almost everything is natural gas.”
In fact, Israel is already exporting gas to Jordan and Egypt, the official pointed out. Lebanon, on the other hand, buys diesel fuel and kerosene from abroad for billions of dollars every year for its power stations. It was therefore in Beirut’s interest to come to the talks with a pragmatic attitude lest another decade go by before the two sides could start exploring additional reserves in the area, the official said.
Wednesday’s talks came with Lebanon going through its worst economic and financial crisis in decades, compounded by a massive deadly blast at Beirut’s port in August. Lebanon is hoping that oil and natural gas discoveries in its territorial waters will help it pay back its enormous debt.
