Lebanon to Israel: All Your Gasfields Are Belong to Us!

by sheikyermami on January 5, 2011

Lebanon urges UN to curb Israel offshore drilling

AFP – Lebanon’s foreign minister on Tuesday asked the United Nations to curb Israel’s offshore drilling plans, days after a US firm announced the discovery of a large field off the Jewish state’s coastline.

“We request you do everything possible to ensure Israel does not exploit Lebanon’s hydrocarbon resources, which fall within Lebanon’s economic zone as delineated in the maps the foreign ministry submitted to the United Nations in 2010,” Foreign Minister Ali Shami said in a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

“Any exploitation by Israel of this resource is a flagrant violation of international law and an attack on Lebanese sovereignty,” read the letter, which was carried by the state-run National News Agency.

US firm Noble Energy announced last week that the Leviathan gas field, offshore from Israel, holds an estimated 450 billion cubic metres (16 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas.

This will boost the Jewish state’s status as the Middle East’s pre-eminent power. The discovery of the world’s biggest offshore gasfield in 10 years is set to make Israel energy-independent for the first time.

In other news (just to crack you up):

The discovery, which surpasses the Tamar field discovered off the northern port of Haifa, has positioned the Jewish state as an exporter, Noble Energy said.

News of the offshore fields, which surfaced in 2010, has increased tensions between the two neighbouring countries which do not have formal maritime borders and sparked an angry exchange of warnings between the two states.

Lebanon’s Energy Minister Gebran Bassil has said his country plans to outline its maritime sea borders and auction off rights to explore potential offshore natural gas and petrol reserves in 2012.

Join the discussion...

Too small? Click here This is a satirical website. None of what you read here has anything to do with Islam, because Islam is a Religion of Peace. Everybody knows that good Muslims never do the things they do, (because Allah does it for them, Quran 8:12) and we know that only our misperceptions, ignorance and stereotyping of Islam makes Muslims chop off heads, kill and rape women and children, bomb subways, buses, nightclubs and fly jets into buildings. If it wasn't for the media and da Jooozzz, we wouldn't even know its happening. We welcome open, honest, thoughtful, and vigorous discussion in the comments threads, so do yourself a favour and don't accuse us of being 'haters' because we are loving, tolerant people. Don't curse us, don't threaten us with death or hellfire, and don't accuse us of being "just like the terrorists" because we don't do to Muslims what they do to us or to themselves. Yes, we know that only idiots oppose Islam and sensible people submit, but you should know that we are ignorant bigots, hypocrites and Islamophobes, and we prefer to remain that way... But since you are forcing yourselves (and your abhorrent belief-system on us) we will defend ourselves, because we must. Avoid tu quoque and ad hominem attacks. Don't bother with circular reasoning either, we been there, done it. If you annoy us, you will be banned and your posts summarily deleted. Try to add to the discussion, don't try to sell snake oil, don't try to cover us with Islamic shrouds of kitman and taqiyya, don't bother with da'awa, (we've heard it before) don't spam us with long pieces of cut & paste, write in English, try to tell the truth, (we know that's hard for you because you are all pathological liars) but the truth will set you free, try it! One more thing: don't think you can post here under multiple monikers. You will quickly be disappeared! The same goes for trufers and conspiracy kooks: you get one chance, one time. Blow it out of your ass if you must; put your stupidity on display. But you won't be back, trust me on that. Take a deep breath before you post, try to make some sense, do not just vent, do not make a fool of yourself and if you prove us wrong you can earn 10 Islamic dollars for your piggy bank. Deal?

{ 5 comments }

al-Kidya January 5, 2011 at 1:24 pm: The only natural gas Hezbollah and Hamas can manage flows freely from the mouths and their asses. If they could capture that it would make Islamic Lebanon and Gaza exporters of natural gas.
Otherwise they should let Israel exploit these resources. They will probably benefit anyhow. Israel is very generous.
Infidel despiser January 5, 2011 at 10:04 pm: If these blow hards from Lebanon don’t shut their fat faces, I reckon Israel should light a rocket up their dirty, stupid asses.
The only good thing that came out of Lebanon is Cedar wood, as for the people, they make shit look good next to them.
kaw January 6, 2011 at 12:34 am: Infidel Despiser,
Lebanon used to be Christian – these people were normal – and I have some muslim friends who are also normal – only the islamists make shit look good.
when*pigs*fly January 6, 2011 at 1:14 am: I wondered who’d be the first lying arab country to claim Israel’s find. That didn’t take long, did it?
kaw January 6, 2011 at 6:58 am: Just in from Arutz Sheva

—————————————————————————————– UN Nixes Lebanese Attempt to Stop Israeli Offshore Drilling
by Chana Ya’ar

UN Rejects Lebanon Appeal on Oil

The United Nations has rejected an attempt by Lebanon to stop Israel from drilling for oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean.

U.N. Spokesman Martin Nesirky said Wednesday that the mandate of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) “does not include delineating maritime lines. We are talking about two different things: coastal waters and a disputed boundary.” Nesirky added that the U.N. position was “what UNIFIL said.”

Lebanon submitted its request to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the wake of last week’s news that confirmed preliminary estimates of gas reserves in the massive energy field discovered beneath the Jewish State’s northern coastal waters.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Ali Shami sent a letter Tuesday, asking Ban to “do everything possible to ensure Israel does not exploit Lebanon’s hydrocarbon resources, which fall within Lebanon’s economic zone and delineated in the maps the foreign ministry submitted to the United Nations in 2010,” Shami wrote.

Shami added that Israel’s exploration for energy in the Mediterranean “is a flagrant violation of international law and an attack on Lebanese sovereignty.” Lebanon and Hizbullah claim that the fields extend into waters off the Lebanese coast.

Last week, the U.S.-based Noble Energy firm announced the Leviathan gas field, located northwest off the Haifa shoreline, holds some 16 trillion cubic feet (450 billion cubic meters) of natural gas.

The discovery far surpasses an earlier find, the Tamar gas field, also located off Haifa’s northern port, and positions the Jewish State to become an exporter of the natural resource.

Confirmation of the estimated reserves in the Leviathan gas field and several other newly-discovered gas and oil fields in the Mediterranean in recent years has raised new tensions between the two nations as Lebanon accuses Israel of encroaching upon its territory.

Israel for its part has asserted that the discoveries of this and several previous gas fields were made well within its borders and has warned it will do what it must to protect its natural resources.

Since no formally-marked maritime borders exist between the two nations, Lebanese Energy Minister Gebran Bassil told the AFP news agency Tuesday that Beirut plans to map what it considers to be its sea borders. The country will then auction off the rights to explore its potential natural gas and oil reserves sometime in 2012, he said.

There was no mention of any negotiation process with Israel over the maritime borders.

The Lebanese government plans to submit its claim under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), according to energy expert Roudi Baroudi.

He told The Daily Star that Lebanon must turn to the U.N. to delineate any offshore exclusive economic zone, adding that Lebanon has been party to UNCLOS since 1995. Israel is not a member.

“Diplomacy offers the most logical solutions for any potential problems in this area, and we should exhaust this option before considering any other options,” he said, adding that the Leviathan field “could well straddle our maritime borders with Israel – and possibly Cyprus too.

“Disputes over oil and gas fields are not new; they exist all around the globe, and there will be more disputes to come… we should use every diplomatic tool at our disposal, assisted by our major allies in the Arab world, in Europe, and even the United States to define our maritime boundary and to force the Israelis to respect UNCLOS even if they aren’t members of it.”