Oil and Gas: “The solution is in your hands” , US tells Lebanon

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US envoy Amos Hochstein ( C)   met on Wednesday with Prime Minister Tammam Salam ( R)  i the presence of  US ambassador to Lebanon  David hale ( L)
US envoy Amos Hochstein ( C) met on Wednesday with Prime Minister Tammam Salam ( R) in the presence of US ambassador to Lebanon David hale ( L)

Amos Hochstein, who serves as the Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs leading the Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) at the U.S. Department of State stressed during his visit to Beirut that the solution to the exploration of Lebanon’s offshore oil and gas reserves is in the hands of the Lebanese.

“The solution is in your hands,” he told An Nahar newspaper on Wednesday , adding “it was time for Lebanon to issue oil decrees and start working.”

“The issue is more complicated than just drawing a line on a map,” Hochstein said about calls for the demarcation of the maritime border with Israel.

Lebanon and Israel are bickering over a maritime zone that consists of about 854 square kilometers and suspected energy reserves there could generate billions of dollars.

Lebanese officials have continuously warned that Israel’s exploration of new offshore gas fields near Lebanese territorial waters means the Jewish state is siphoning some of Lebanon’s crude oil.

The U.S. had offered to mediate between the sides in an attempt to reach a solution.

Beirut argues that a maritime map it submitted to the U.N. is in line with an armistice accord drawn up in 1949, an agreement which is not contested by Israel.

lebanon oill , gas reserves
lebanon oill , gas reserves

“Gas prices have dropped and opportunities in the world are growing and some countries are developing,” Hochstein told An Nahar, urging the Lebanese “not to arrive late for the party.”

Hochstein met on Wednesday with Prime Minister Tammam Salam, Energy Minister Arthur Nazarian and UNIFIL Commander Maj. Gen. Luciano Portolano.

Al-Liwaa daily quoted Hochstein as saying that the U.S. is ready to assist Lebanon in the demarcation of its maritime border.

The Lebanese officials insisted that the process should be carried out through the United Nations, informed sources told the newspaper.

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23 responses to “Oil and Gas: “The solution is in your hands” , US tells Lebanon”

  1. Nothing good will come out of the U.S. mediation. Washington is in reality committed to full support of the Zionist state. It has been for decades that the U.S. from its presidents down to its supine congress, to its institutions and mass media, with very few exceptions, providing full military, political, economic, and U.N. Security Council veto in favor of Israel, and against the plight of the Palestinian people.

    1. MekensehParty Avatar
      MekensehParty

      fine go get that oil by yourself then

    2. man-o-war Avatar
      man-o-war

      Just look at who they sent to discuss the issue. It would be like sending a Palestinian American to represent the US during the Palestinian peace talks. The US is not a fair mediator when it comes to conflicts with Israel.

      1. MekensehParty Avatar
        MekensehParty

        First he’s an American sent by the US government. Having a Jewish last name doesn’t bring much to the story. He could be named John McConor from Boston or Rajeev Rawajputallah from Phoenix and the US position he’s bringing will be the same.
        Two, the interest of both countries is in a fair demarcation if both want to take advantage of the gas on each side of the maritime border. Israel can’t dig for it without demarcation, nor Lebanon. No oil company will dig in disputed areas, this is well known.
        Three, what Hochstein is saying is very simple, stop wasting time hiding behind the “demarcation” excuse and start working towards the legislature you need to start getting this gas pumped out. In other words: MOVE YOUR ASSES while this gas still has value.
        Finally, and for those who doubt the US good intentions towards Lebanon. If the US didn’t care, or if the US only had Israel’s interests at heart why would they offer to help resolve the issue?
        Israel is already pumping gas in its undisputed maritime border, and they can end up taping on the reserves between both countries. If anything here, the US is mostly worried that Israel who is technologically, legislatively and financially more advanced than Lebanon, would end up siphoning the shared gas while the Lebanese are still debating if they should demarcate or not.
        So fine, don’t listen to Hochstein because he’s an Amrikan Amberialistic Zionist Jew and in 50 or 100 years when Jubran Bassil’s grandson or great grandson decides to start digging, don’t go crying that there are no gas left.

      2. And it will never be so long its presidents, supine congress, its institutions, and its unfair media are controlled, intimidated, and mesmerized by AIPAC and other Zionist groups.

      3. Your analogy recalls that vile and wicked American-Lebanese Philip Habib, who was sent by the Reagan Admn. as mediator during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, just to compound the bloodshed by his pro-Zionism, anti-Arab sentiments that culminated in the Shatila and Sabra massacres.

        1. MekensehParty Avatar
          MekensehParty

          Of course the falsifiers of history call one of the greatest diplomats of the past century wicked and vile. Without Philip Habib Beirut would have been burnt to the ground by the Israelis in 82. Without Habib, Syria would have burned to the ground in 81, and the PLO would have been erased the same year.
          Go read some history…

          1. You are following the long-decades path of Organized-Zionist-Jewry that has hewn for it, and which prophetic Judaism has incurred an incalculable loss in moral values which author Moshe menuhin has forcefully and with clarity described as “the Decadence of Judaism in Our Times.” That is a book if you read perhaps it will enlighten you and demonstrate that ethical Judaism will remain as distinct as ever from mischievous, chauvinist Zionism, which is a political, racist creed untenable for peaceful coexistence.As that eminent American scholar of the Jewish faith, Dr. Alfred Lilienthal wrote, “Zionism is the maelstrom of every racist, destructive impulse caught in the flux of time.”

          2. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            you’re avoiding the subject, which is history falsification!
            Can you deny that Philip Habib saved Beirut from being destroyed on the heads of the PLO and their local friends? Can you deny that Habib was the diplomat who saved Syria and Israel a war in 81?
            Don’t respond with anti-Zionism rants, I don’t care about Zionists, but what I despise more than anything is history falsifiers.

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Accurate history, Mekenseh, is not always enjoyed in it’s facts … and people wish it had gone another way sometimes. I’m sure we are unhappy Napolean didn’t take over Russia, for example …but we’re stuck with what DID happen.
            Learning something valuable from it doesn’t always occur to some … they want to ‘go back’ and ‘adjust it somehow … which is also usually impossible.
            Even if Putin is trying to get Ukraine back in ‘the fold’, he won’t change history.
            And he’ll be dead before he can change the minds.

          4. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            Right on! Hence the term: History Falsification

          5. Yes you do care about Zionism. I have read four books one in Arabic, and three in English where all come to the concrete conclusion, not as /a priori/, but with facts and figures, that Philip Habib was a Reagan thug, and in turn pro-Zionism rogue, who maneuvered his way with the Kataeb, Chamouns, and Johnny Abdo, Haddad (SLA) as well as the Saudi lackey Rafiq Hariri, and other reprobates who collaborated with the Zionist enemy, that all conspired with Washington’s complicit knowledge to let Zionist Israel occupy West Beirut and thereby the subsequent bloody massacres of Sabra and Shatila refugees’ camps. Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Joe Ruropee, and Najah Wakim (/The Black Hands). All these authors concluded in their books that Habib was from the outset tilted toward Zionist Israel./

          6. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            4 books against thousands of books in at least 20 languages that name Habib as a diplomatic maestro, not only in the ME but all around the world. Anyway, Habib doesn’t need your opinion or that of the morons you named (especially Najah Wakim lolololololol) to earn his rightful place in History as one of the best diplomats in the world.
            And you still haven’t answered my simple question: did Habib save your sorry asses between 81 and 82, yes or no?

          7. He is nothing but a rogue. A pro-Zionist depraved person.

          8. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            … said Mutih Skeini

  2. lebanesesam Avatar
    lebanesesam

    So this is the advice you traveled to tell us, it’s in your own hands? Go F*** yourself.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      He has a point … could have drilled Anywhere but in the disputed little bit of waves.

    2. MekensehParty Avatar
      MekensehParty

      Typical Lebanese attitude
      In the meantime you’re so busy fucking yourselves while billions in oil and gas are sitting on your shores
      Keep it up!

  3. 胡云海 Avatar
    胡云海

    love me

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Because you are a Chinese cutie??

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