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Lebanon, Israel Start Talks on Disputed Maritime Border

United Nations peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) vehicles patrol the coastal road to Naqoura, the southernmost Lebanese town by the border with Israel, on October 13, 2020. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
United Nations peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) vehicles patrol the coastal road to Naqoura, the southernmost Lebanese town by the border with Israel, on October 13, 2020. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
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Lebanon, Israel Start Talks on Disputed Maritime Border

United Nations peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) vehicles patrol the coastal road to Naqoura, the southernmost Lebanese town by the border with Israel, on October 13, 2020. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
United Nations peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) vehicles patrol the coastal road to Naqoura, the southernmost Lebanese town by the border with Israel, on October 13, 2020. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

Lebanon and Israel met on Wednesday for unprecedented and indirect talks on their disputed maritime border.

The talks, at the United Nations base in Naqoura on the land border between the two countries, were mediated by the United States which has pushed for three years for negotiations to resolve the argument over potentially gas-rich Mediterranean waters.

Two Lebanese military helicopters were seen bringing the Lebanese delegation to the meeting. The Lebanese team was expected to be led by a military officer, and the Israeli side by the director general of its energy ministry.

Hezbollah and its ally Amal movement criticized the delegation, calling for changing the team hours before the first meeting.

In an overnight statement, Hezbollah and Amal, Lebanon's two main Shiite parties, said the negotiating team must include only military officials, without any civilians or politicians.

"The two demand immediately rowing back from this decision and re-forming the delegation in line with the framework agreement," it said.

Hezbollah has said the talks did not signal peace-making with long-time enemy Israel. The two last fought a deadly month-long war in 2006.

The Naqoura talks, which will focus exclusively on the disputed sea frontier, come at a sensitive time as Lebanon, battered by multiple crises, hopes to continue exploring for oil and gas in a part of the Mediterranean also claimed by Israel.

US envoy David Schenker will facilitate the opening session along with US ambassador to Algeria John Desrocher, who will mediate in the talks.

Israel has said that there will be "direct negotiations", something Lebanese officials have denied.

It is expected the two delegations will be sitting in the same hall.

The Israeli delegation is led by the director-general of the Energy Ministry, Udi Adiri, while the Lebanese four-member team is led by Brig. Gen. Bassam Yassin, the army’s deputy chief of staff.

The Lebanese team met President Michel Aoun on Tuesday who stressed the talks “are technical negotiations that only deal with marking the maritime border.”

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Arab World

UN Chief Calls the Death and Destruction in Gaza the Worst He’s Seen

A general view of damaged buildings in Bureij, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, September 9, 2024. (Reuters)
A general view of damaged buildings in Bureij, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, September 9, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Chief Calls the Death and Destruction in Gaza the Worst He’s Seen

A general view of damaged buildings in Bureij, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, September 9, 2024. (Reuters)
A general view of damaged buildings in Bureij, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, September 9, 2024. (Reuters)

The UN chief said Monday that the United Nations has offered to monitor any ceasefire in Gaza and demanded an end to the worst death and destruction he has seen in his more than seven-year tenure.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with The Associated Press that it’s “unrealistic” to think the UN could play a role in Gaza’s future, either by administering the territory or providing a peacekeeping force, because Israel is unlikely to accept a UN role.

But he said “the UN will be available to support any ceasefire.” The United Nations has had a military monitoring mission in the Middle East, known as UNTSO, since 1948, and he said, “from our side, this was one of the hypotheses that we’ve put on the table.”

“Of course, we’ll be ready to do whatever the international community asked for us,” Guterres said. “The question is whether the parties would accept it, and in particular whether Israel would accept it.”

Israel’s military assault on Gaza, triggered by Hamas' attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, has stretched for 11 months, with recent ceasefire talks failing to reach a breakthrough and violence in the West Bank reaching new highs.

Stressing the urgency of a ceasefire now, Guterres said: “The level of suffering we are witnessing in Gaza is unprecedented in my mandate as secretary-general of the United Nations. I’ve never seen such a level of death and destruction as we are seeing in Gaza in the last few months.”

The war has killed over 40,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have accused the UN of being anti-Israel and have been highly critical of UN humanitarian operations in Gaza.

Facing protests at home and increasing urgency from allies, Netanyahu has pushed back against pressure for a ceasefire deal and declared that “no one will preach to me.”

Looking beyond a ceasefire, Guterres stressed that a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not only viable, “it’s the only solution.”

The United States and others support Palestinian statehood, but Netanyahu, who is leading the most conservative government in Israel’s history, has opposed calls for a two-state solution.

Guterres asked rhetorically whether the alternative is viable.

“It means that you have 5 million Palestinians living there without any rights in a state,” he said. “Is it possible? Can we accept an idea similar to what we had in South Africa in the past?"

He was referring to South Africa’s apartheid system from 1948 until the early 1990s when its minority white population marginalized and segregated people of color, especially Black people.

“I do not think you can have two peoples living together if they are not in a basis of equality, and if they are not in a basis of respect — mutual respect of their rights,” Guterres said. “So the two-state solution is, in my opinion, a must if we want to have peace in the Middle East.”