Bassil for non-Leniency with Cyprus, Firm in Preserving Rights
Water and Energy Minister Jibran Bassil stressed in the government's meeting Monday that the Lebanese attitude regarding oil must be very firm with the State of Cyprus in terms of informing that the failure to correct the mistake with "Israel" threatens its relations with Lebanon on one hand, and doesn't allow Cyprus to perform any exploration for oil and gas in common areas with Lebanon on the other hand.
In an interview with "as-Safir", Bassil confirmed that he had discussed the matter with Ambassador of Cyprus, who visited him last week to discuss some of the mechanisms for joint exploration in the sea.
"Lebanon will not show any indulgence with respect to any State or entity affecting our sovereign rights."
"The government's priority today is to file drilling for oil and gas at sea rather than distraction and time wasting in concerted and consensual subjects such as electricity," he added stressing that "the government needs to move quickly in the oil's file and its decrees."
"The coordinates approved by the government were virtually identical to those that have been developed in 2008 by the government of Fouad Siniora; this means that we wasted three years until we admitted coordinates," he pointed out.
Source: as-Safir Lebanese daily, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org
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