Report: FPM Presses Hizbullah for Action on Oil Exploration
The Free Patriotic Movement has blamed its ally Hizbullah for not speeding up efforts to make Lebanon an oil exploration country, As Safir newspaper reported on Thursday.
The daily said that the issue was discussed by FPM chief Michel Aoun and Hizbullah officials Hussein Khalil and Wafiq Safa during a meeting they held in Rabieh on Wednesday.
Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who is Aoun's son-in-law, attended the talks.
Aoun and Bassil expressed frustration that Hizbullah was remaining “silent” to the obstacles preventing oil exploration, asking the party officials to have “pressing stances,” said As Safir.
Bassil warned in July that Israel’s discovery of a new offshore gas field near Lebanese territorial waters means the Jewish state could siphon some of Lebanon’s crude oil.
He urged the outgoing government to hold an extraordinary meeting to ratify decrees paving way for the country to start oil and gas explorations.
But Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati told As Safir that the priority now is to form a new government. A solution to this problem would later facilitate many pending issues, including oil exploration, he said.
Miqati stressed that the resigned cabinet failed to meet to ratify the decrees over reservations expressed my sides.
“Such a delicate and vital issue requires a sort of unanimity,” he said.
But Bassil held all political parties responsible for the delay in oil exploration either for wanting to serve regional parties or getting shares from the revenues.
“The danger of the delay in the adoption of the decrees lies in its repercussion on the companies that had expressed excitement to be part of the tenders,” he said.
“They could at any moment reject their participation in the tenders over their fears of lack of transparency,” Bassil added.
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