Report: Lebanon Denies Depositing Maritime Border Maps with UN
Lebanon reportedly denied depositing with the United Nations, new maps that include its claim to the maritime borders with Israel, that are being negotiated indirectly under the UN and US auspices, noting that the only maps deposited in the international organization are the land borders map drawn in 1922, the Saudi Asharq el-Awsat reported on Friday.
The daily added that Tuesday’s statements made by the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the maritime border demarcation sparked “confusion,” when he said the “US remains ready to mediate constructive negotiations,” between Lebanon and Israel.
He “encouraged both sides to continue discussions based on the respective claims they have previously deposited at the United Nations.”
“Lebanon did not deposit new maps with the UN, given that the maps are sent upon conclusion of the agreement and the demarcation of the borders,” caretaker Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe said in remarks to the daily.
“As long as the border demarcation agreement has not been completed with the Israeli side, and is in the process of negotiation, the only maps deposited with the UN are the maps of the land borders drawn in 1922 between Lebanon and Palestine, and deposited with the League of Nations in 1923, and were confirmed in the armistice agreement between Lebanon and Israel in 1949,” added Wehbe.
The Minister said that “Pompeo aimed to send a political message, rather than a technical one. He meant to say that the US continues to play a mediating role in the indirect negotiations,” affirming that Lebanon “welcomes that role to help reach an agreement.”
The border demarcation talks between the Lebanese and Israeli sides experience additional 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.
