After a decade of negotiations, this week's agreement resolves questions of who gets to drill for natural gas in disputed waters off the Mediterranean coast. But its implementation isn't a sure thing.
An Israeli soldier walks past a sign at a tourist site at the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon in Rosh Hanikra, Israel, on Tuesday.
The crux of the conflict was who gets to drill for natural gas in disputed waters off the Mediterranean coast. More than a decade of U.S. mediation — with some recent saber-rattling by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah — led to a compromise on the drilling rights, announced by the U.S., Israel and Lebanon on Tuesday.
President Biden called it a"historic breakthrough." But the deal's implementation is not a sure thing.Two undersea natural gas fields are at stake. An established gas field, Karish, is in Israeli waters to which Lebanon laid claim in late 2020. As Israel was ramping up plans to start extracting gas there, Hezbollah threatened war. In July, Hezbollah sent reconnaissance drones toward Karish, which Israel's army intercepted.
The Qana field, further to the north — still unexplored by gas companies because it was disputed — will go to Lebanon, which can begin exploring how much gas might be there. To compensate for a little portion of Qana that juts over the new dividing line into Israeli waters, Lebanon will share some of the revenue with Israel.
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