One gas crisis is solved as Israel and Lebanon find agreement

While the gas war between Russia and Europe enters its most delicate phase, another part of the world manages to solve its issues regarding energy. In an historic agreement, Israel and Lebanon divided the two countries’ economic exclusive zones, dividing among themselves two important gas fields.

Israel and Lebanon were never good friends. As often happens with its surrounding neighborhoods, Israel has a history of conflict with Lebanon, and some territorial disputes that were never resolved.

Under US pressure, however, Israel agreed to Lebanese claims over the disputed gas fields and finally signed off an important agreement. The dispute started 10 years ago, when the Kana and Qarish gas fields were discovered off the shores of these Middle Eastern nations.

The final border line reached with the agreement gives full control of the Qarish gas field to Israel, while Kana is divided among the two but only Lebanon retains the rights of extraction. Beirut has already put into place agreements with the French giant Total to begin extraction of the precious material.

This would give much needed breathing room to the beaten-up economy of Lebanon. According to some estimates, the Kana gas fields will last for at least the next 20 years, while Beirut will not have to worry about foreign energy crisis.

Now that the agreement is reached, Israel can start extracting gas from Qarish as well, exporting it to Europe and relieving the continent’s dependance to Russian gas. Of course, it will not cover the entire supply Moscow currently provides to Europe, but every little bit helps, right?

It is clear that the United States wanted this deal to have Europe rely on Israel (a strong American foothold in the region) and escape the perfidious Russian hands. Right now, Washington has to deal with yet another problem regarding World’s energy exports, namely OPEC’s decision to cut oil supply.

What issues are still open

While the new agreement might have resolved the problem of exclusive economic zones between the two countries, the land border is still an open issue.

Since the two countries last were at war in 2006, the land border was marked by a UN demarcation line, which obviously was not recognized by either country. Tensions remained high and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah often threatened to break the ceasefire and attack Israel.

This deal does not address the land border in any way, except for a pledge by the Lebanese government to keep under control Hezbollah and prevent it from breaking the truce. It is likely that Beirut will comply as this deal favors both countries enormously.