Berri Meets Ban: 1701 Spirit Requires U.N. to Draw Sea Border

Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday stressed to visiting U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon the need that the United Nations demarcate Lebanon’s maritime borders and demanded compensations for the oil spill caused by Israel’s bombardment of storage tanks at the thermal power station in Jiyeh during the July 2006 war.

“To date, Israel has not accepted to turn the post-July war cessation of hostilities into a permanent ceasefire in order to justify its incessant overflights in Lebanese airspace and its naval and territorial violations,” Berri added during talks in Ain al-Tineh with the U.N. chief.

“The spirit of (U.N. Security Council) Resolution 1701 requires the U.N. to demarcate Lebanon’s maritime borders, in the vein of its demarcation of the land borders, given that it is an international peacekeeping force,” Berri said, demanding “compensations for the oil spill off Jiyeh’s coast caused by the 2006 Israeli aggression.”

During the one-hour meeting, the speaker also highlighted “the very solid relation between the Lebanese people in the South and UNIFIL peacekeepers.”

He asked for “serious support from the United Nations after the conference held by Lebanon on the disposal of the cluster bombs left over from the Israeli aggression.”

Addressing the Syrian crisis, Berri noted that “what’s happening in Syria is different than the so-called Arab Spring.”

And as he stressed his “support for the Arab initiative on Syria,” he voiced his regret that “the initiative still lacks a political aspect and efforts by the Arab League to launch dialogue between the regime and the opposition.”