Analysis: The politics behind the Lebanon-Israel border talks

Beirut, Lebanon – Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to sit down for talks this week on a decade-old maritime border dispute that has gained importance after large and lucrative discoveries of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean. The talks are the first between Beirut and Tel Aviv in 30 years on a civilian matter. They are set to begin on Wednesday in the southernmost Lebanese border town of Naqoura under United Nations auspices, with US mediation. The United States has worked to broker a deal on the issue for most of the last decade – a hard task given that Lebanon does not officially recognise Israel and the two nations technically remain at war. Israel in 2006 fought a 34-day war with Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim group backed by Israel’s greatest regional foe, Iran. But it was Hezbollah’s main Lebanese ally, House Speaker Nabih Berri, who announced late last month that he had reached a framework agreement for the talks after working on the issue for 10 years. Any deal on the maritime border is likely to be far off. But the parties involved in negotiations stand to reap immediate political benefits. (Al Jazeera) The backstory The dispute dates back to 2011 when Israel ratified a maritime border agreement with neighbouring Cyprus that used as a reference point a maritime border that Lebanon and Cyprus had agreed to in 2007, but which Lebanon’s parliament never ratified. Lebanon later in 2011 clarified its maritime border to the United Nations, saying that it included an additional 860 square km (332 square miles) south of the 2007 line. Israel disagreed, and the dispute over that sliver of the sea was born. A decade of US mediation was beset by differing views in Lebanon and chronic political crises. Lebanon has insisted that both its land and sea border disputes with Israel be resolved together and disagreed with Israel about setting a time limit for the negotiations. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">