In light of the agreement on maritime border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel with US mediation, Cyprus resorted to negotiations with Israel to adjust its maritime borders. It hopes to make progress on this issue with Lebanon as well.
The head of the Cypriot intelligence services, Tasos Tzionis, who visited Beirut last week, urged Lebanese authorities to resolve its maritime border dispute with Syria in the North. By doing so, Cyprus would be able to define its maritime borders with Lebanon and Syria after reaching an agreement with Israel.
In response to the Cypriot official’s call, caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transports Ali Hamiye asserted that Lebanon, and in particular Hezbollah (the formation he represents within the government), “do not consider that the time is right for the demarcation of borders with Syria and Cyprus, because it requires legal and technical studies to avoid mistakes similar to the ones made in the past.”
A former minister reported that caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati had formed a ministerial committee that recommended the introduction of a new delimitation procedure.
Additionally, it recommended the use of new coordinates to negotiate with Syria as well as the resumption of negotiations with Cyprus. As such, Lebanon found that it has lost, when the Exclusive economic zone (EEZ) with Cyprus was delimited in 2007, during the mandate of Fouad Siniora government, between 1600 and 2643 square kilometers in the sea.
