Lebanon's President Says New Maritime Claim Needs Government Approval

Lebanon's President Michel Aoun is pictured at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon April 7, 2021. (Dalati & Nohra)
Lebanon's President Michel Aoun is pictured at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon April 7, 2021. (Dalati & Nohra)
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Lebanon's President Says New Maritime Claim Needs Government Approval

Lebanon's President Michel Aoun is pictured at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon April 7, 2021. (Dalati & Nohra)
Lebanon's President Michel Aoun is pictured at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon April 7, 2021. (Dalati & Nohra)

Lebanon’s president said on Tuesday a draft decree expanding its maritime claims in a dispute with Israel must be approved by the caretaker government, rejecting a request to grant it swift presidential approval.

The dispute with Israel over the maritime boundary has held up hydrocarbon exploration in a potentially gas-rich area of the eastern Mediterranean.

The decree, approved by Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, defense minister and minister of public work on Monday, would add around 1,400 square km (540 square miles) to an exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean claimed by Lebanon.

Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s office said the decree should be approved by President Michel Aoun so that the new maritime coordinates setting out Lebanon’s claim could be submitted to the United Nations.

But the presidency said it should be approved by Diab’s full cabinet, even though the government resigned eight months ago following a devastating explosion in Beirut, because of the gravity of the issue.

The draft decree “needs a collective decision from the council of ministers..., even under a caretaker government, due to its importance and the consequences,” a statement from Aoun’s office said.

Aoun’s decision could significantly delay the process. Since the government resigned in August it has referred all issues for exceptional approval by the president, leaving them to get formal endorsement when a new government is finally agreed.

Negotiations were launched in October to try to resolve the dispute with Israel yet the talks, a culmination of three years of diplomacy by the United States, have since stalled.

Israel already pumps gas from offshore fields but Lebanon has yet to find commercial gas reserves in its own waters.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Monday Lebanon’s expanded claim would derail the talks rather than help work towards a common solution, warning that Israel would implement “parallel measures”.

Lebanon, in the throes of a deep financial meltdown that is threatening its stability, is desperate for cash as it faces the worst economic crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war. But political leaders have failed to bridge their differences and form a new government.



Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on Gaza on March 4

18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on Gaza on March 4

18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on March 4 to discuss the developments of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza without forcing Palestinians out of the strip in a counter to President Donald Trump’s proposal to depopulate the territory so the US can take it over.
The proposal comes after an international uproar over Trump’s call for the removal of Gaza’s population of some 2 million Palestinians. Trump said the United States would take over the Gaza Strip and rebuild it into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” though Palestinians would not be allowed back.

Palestinians have widely said they will not leave their homeland while Egypt and Jordan have refused Trump’s calls for them to take in Gaza’s population.