A Lebanese call for dialogue with Syria to demarcate the maritime borders

Deputy Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Elias Bou Saab.

Deputy Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Elias Bou Saab called for communication "directly and publicly" with Damascus in order to delineate the maritime borders between Lebanon and Syria, after Lebanon signed an agreement to demarcate its borders with Israel last month.

Bou Saab, who led the negotiations from the Lebanese side over the past months with the American mediator Amos Hochstein on the maritime border with Israel, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse, "There must be communication on the part of the Lebanese government in a direct and public way with the Syrian government, and without shame, And without including regional political differences in this file."

He added, "We have to communicate with the Syrian state publicly and publicly delineate the maritime borders..., and any future government should undertake this task."

Bou Saab said that Syria and Lebanon are adopting two different methods of demarcation of the borders, and therefore "there is a great dispute, which may be more than 800 square kilometers, or even greater than the area that was disputed between us and the Israelis."

Lebanon cannot begin work and exploration in Blocks 1 and 2, located to the north, without demarcating its borders with Syria, according to Bou Saab.

Bou Saab's call comes about two weeks after Lebanon and Israel concluded an agreement demarcating the maritime borders between them, which allowed Israel to start producing gas from a disputed area, while Lebanon, mired in economic collapse, hopes to start exploration soon.

The day after the announcement of the demarcation of the maritime borders with Israel, Lebanon and Cyprus agreed on a joint formula for the demarcation of the borders between them, without having signed an agreement until now.

"We were able in one day to reach an understanding on adjusting the borders between Lebanon and Cyprus" based on the new coordinates related to the agreement with Israel, Bou Saab said.

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