Lebanon: Miqati, agreement with Israel holds if Netanyahu premier

(ANSAMed) - BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 02 - Outgoing Lebanese premier Najib Miqati said he was calm about maintaining the terms of the energy agreement with Israel even in the event of Benjiamin Netanyahu's electoral victory.

    The Israeli leader, who in these hours appears in the lead in the count of votes for the legislative elections held yesterday, during the election campaign had threatened to "neutralize" the agreement signed in recent days between Lebanon and Israel, with the American mediation, for the sharing of marine energy resources.

    Miqati said today that the United States has guaranteed that it will protect the maritime border agreement with Israel even if the former conservative Israeli prime minister wins a majority in the elections.

    The same US mediator, Amos Hochstein, speaking in Beirut with Lebanese journalists, in recent days had said that he expected the agreement between the two countries to hold up both political transitions in Israel and Lebanon, where the mandate of the President of the Republic Michel Aoun.

    Quoted this morning by the Lebanese media, Miqati, who in these hours is in Algiers to attend the Arab League meeting, said: "We are not afraid of a change in authority in Israel. Whether Netanyahu or someone else wins, no one can stand in the way of this agreement", Miqati said.

   (ANSAMed).