The Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday rejected all appeals against the Israel-Lebanon maritime border agreement, paving the way for its final approval by the government and its signing in the coming days.
After intense indirect negotiations under the aegis of the United States, Israel and Lebanon announced at the beginning of the month that they had reached an agreement to delimit the maritime border between these two neighbors, officially in a state of war, and to remove obstacles to the exploitation of gas deposits in
Eastern Mediterranean.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun has already approved the agreement, described as “historic” by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and welcomed by U.S. and French Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron, with Paris also participating in the negotiations.
But in Israel, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, in the midst of his campaign against Yair Lapid for the November 1 legislative elections, had blasted the agreement and said it should be put to a vote in the Knesset (Parliament), or even a referendum.
In the meantime, various right-wing organizations filed four appeals with the Supreme Court against the agreement, arguing that it should receive the support of Parliament at a time when the Lapid government has lost its majority, which in fact favoured the holding of early elections on November 1.
But on Sunday morning, three judges of Israel’s highest court “unanimously decided to reject these four appeals,” implying that the agreement did not need the green light of Parliament but only that of the government, the court said in a statement, noting that the full decision would be published later.
Mr. Lapid’s government must give the green light to the agreement in the next few days, while press reports indicate a possible signing on Thursday in Naqoura, the southern Lebanese town bordering Israel where the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL) is based.
Under the agreement, the Karish offshore field is located entirely in Israeli waters. Lebanon for its part will have full rights to explore and exploit the Qana field, located further north-east, part of which lies in Israeli territorial waters. But “Israel will be paid” by the firm operating Cana “for its rights to any deposits”, according to the text.
