UN Not to Define Lebanese-OPT Maritime Border

According to the UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky, the United Nations is not going to define the Lebanese-occupied Palestinian maritime border after the "Israeli" recent discovery of a major gas well across their border.

Nesirky said that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon's (UNIFIL) mandate - among others to monitor the coastal waters in conformity with Security Council resolution 1701 - "does not include delineating maritime lines. We are talking about two different things: coastal waters and a disputed boundary," adding that the UN position "is what UNIFIL said."

The decision came after Foreign Minister Ali Shami stressed Tuesday Lebanon's right to exploit its entire oil resources in its offshore economic zone in a letter he addressed to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.

In the letter, Shami asked Ban to "exert every possible effort to prevent Israel from exploiting Lebanon's oil and maritime resources in its offshore exclusive economic zone."

Shami's letter came in light of recent reports that "Israel" had reached an agreement with a number of companies to drill for gas and oil in the Mediterranean, with some of these fields lying in the joint regional waters between Lebanon and northern Palestine.