Hundreds of people demonstrated in southern Lebanon on Saturday against the presence in disputed waters with Israel of a ship that is to exploit gas for the Jewish state, noted an AFP journalist.
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Hundreds of protesters gathered in the town of Naqoura, which borders Israel, and waved Lebanese and Palestinian flags.
A vessel from the British gas company Energean Plc, commissioned by Israel, arrived at the controversial Karish offshore field on Sunday to start exploiting it, according to a statement from the company.
For Lebanon, the Karish field is in part of disputed waters with Israel, while the Jewish state considers it to be in its exclusive economic zone.
“
We categorically refuse to give up the country's maritime resources, they belong to all Lebanese
,” independent MP Firas Hamdane told the crowd of demonstrators.
Lebanon and Israel, officially still at war, began negotiations in October 2020 under the aegis of Washington to delimit their maritime border, in order to remove obstacles to hydrocarbon prospecting.
But talks were suspended in May 2021 following disputes over the surface of the disputed area.
On Monday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun and outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced a "
provocation
" on the part of Israel and called for American mediation regarding the delimitation of the maritime borders between the two countries.
US mediator Amos Hochstein is due to arrive in Lebanon on Monday for a two-day visit, the US State Department said on Friday.
The powerful pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah on Thursday warned the Israeli-mandated gas exploration company against launching such an operation.
Read alsoThe keys to understanding this wind of hope blowing over Lebanon
Israel, for its part, had warned on Wednesday that it gave "
priority to the protection of its strategic assets
" and said that it was ready to defend them.
