Report: Tripartite Baabda Meeting Fails to Convene on Demarcation 'Decree'

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Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab asked for a “tripartite” meeting between the heads of the State at Baabda Palace, to decide on a Republican Decree defining the exclusive maritime area of 2,290 square kilometers for Lebanon, which Israel contests, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday.

Diab has called for the meeting reportedly in order to deposit the maps with the United Nations which is overseeing Lebanon’s indirect talks with Israel.

According to information obtained by the daily, Baabda took over the preparation for the meeting, but Speaker Nabih Berri expressed rejection of such a move.

Berri said that he made his position “clear and known” during an earlier meeting he made with Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs, in the presence of the negotiating delegation, that he is against sending the decree to the United Nations.

Berri argues that any future “fall back” in the negotiations will mean a "waiver" of Lebanese rights, said the daily.

In October, Lebanon and Israel began indirect maritime border demarcations talks under US and UN auspices.

But the talks experienced complications, in light of Lebanon's demands for rights based on the international land border point established in 1922, which gives it an additional marine area of 2,290 square kilometers.

Meanwhile, Israel rejects the Lebanese maps “supported by topographical, historical and geographical documents,” and wants to start from old coordinates, which is a memorandum sent to the United Nations in 2011, including a notice of initial agreement on a border point between their maritime borders, which limits the border dispute to only 860 square kilometers.

SourceNaharnet