Israel and Lebanon have signed the agreement on the maritime border between them, after the Israeli government approved the outline agreement this morning. Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked was the only government minister who voted against it.
For Lebanon, President Michel Aoun signed a letter approving the agreement deal at his palace in Baabda, while for Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed in Jerusalem. US envoy Amos Hochstein, who brokered the deal, was in attendance in Lebanon, and handed Aoun a letter from US President Joe Biden. Hochstein is due to meet Lapid tomorrow.
Delegations from the two sides handed signed copies of the agreement to US officials at the UN base at Naqoura, on the provisional Israel-Lebanon land border, and gave the coordinates of the new maritime border to UN officials. The Lebanese insisted that there should be no joint signing ceremony or joint photograph.
Under the agreement, which has proved controversial, the border between the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Israel and Lebanon is set a Line 23, as Lebanon demanded, thus transferring 860 square kilometers to Lebanese economic control. This area contains about half of the Qana/Sidon gas prospect, leaving a small portion of it that extends beyond Line 23 in Israeli hands.
Lebanon will manage production of gas from the Qana/Sidon field (assuming gas is discovered) through French company Total and its partner, Eni of Italy. Israel is due to receive royalties on account of the part of the field remaining within its EEZ (about 17%), under an agreement to be negotiated with Total.
The Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources and the Ministry of Finance Accountant General are conducting the negotiations with Total on the royalty mechanism. The amount Israel will receive will be in accordance with the exploratory drilling that will begin shortly, and is expected to be anywhere between zero and $15 billion over the years.
