Israel rejects Lebanese proposed amendments On Thursday, Israel rejected amendments proposed by Lebanon to a draft maritime boundary demarcation agreement with Israel that would make it easier to invest in potential offshore oil and gas resources.
An Israeli official told AFP: “Israel has received Lebanon’s response to the mediators’ proposal, and Prime Minister Yair Lapid has been briefed on the details of the fundamental changes Lebanon is seeking to make and has instructed the negotiating team to reject it.”
The draft proposal put forward by the American mediator Amos Hochstein and presented to the Israeli and Lebanese sides includes a set of proposals concerning the demarcation of the southern maritime borders.
In practice, the two countries are at war, and Israel’s last war against Hezbollah in 2006 lasted 34 days.
Israel welcomed Hochstein’s proposal, but Prime Minister Lapid confirmed it would be subject to legal scrutiny before submitting it for final government approval, and Lebanon submitted its response to the US proposal on Tuesday.
According to an Israeli official who asked not to be named, “Israel will not give up its security and economic interests, even if it results in a failure to reach an agreement.”
And last week, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati expressed optimism about progress towards an agreement, while Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah called the US proposal “a very important step.”
On Tuesday, a Lebanese official involved in the talks said Beirut’s response to the original US proposal included “amendments to specific proposals to avoid misunderstandings.”
Notably, talks between Lebanon and Israel in 2020 then broke down in May 2021 over disagreements over the area of the disputed area after Lebanon demanded an amendment to the map used by the UN during the talks, saying it was based on incorrect ratings.
Since the beginning of June, events related to the file have accelerated after a months-long hiatus, after the arrival of a production and storage vessel near the Karish field in preparation for the start of gas production from it. Beirut considers it to be in a disputed area, while Israel claims it is in its exclusive economic zone. Paris demands immediate release
Tehran broadcasts alleged ‘confessions’ of two arrested Frenchmen Tehran – AFP
The direct confrontation between Tehran and Paris came to light after the website of the official Arabic-language Al-Alam TV channel on Thursday published “confessions” of espionage made by what it said were two Frenchmen. who were arrested in May in Iran.
In the video, a French-speaking woman says her name is Cécile Koller and she is an intelligence officer in the General Directorate for External Security (DGSO), France’s foreign intelligence service.
On May 11, Iran announced the arrest of two Europeans who “entered the country with the aim of creating chaos and destabilizing society.”
The French authorities condemned the arrest of the two French citizens as “unfounded” and demanded their “immediate release”.
Tehran accused Motali Wali of “French trade unionists” arrested in May of “damaging the country’s security.”
A French trade union source said at the time that they were Cecil Kohler, an official with the National Federation of Teachers and Labor, and her husband, Jacques Barry, and explained that they were visiting tourist attractions in Iran during the Easter holidays when they were arrested. .
In an entry released on Thursday, the woman said she and her husband were in Iran “to create conditions for a revolution and the overthrow of the Iranian regime” and, according to her, financed strikes and demonstrations and even used weapons “if necessary.” fight the police. More than a dozen Western citizens, most with dual citizenship, are being held or stuck in Iran in what NGOs say is a hostage-taking policy to extract concessions from foreign powers.
Among them are Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelha, who was arrested in June 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison for undermining national security, which her relatives have always vehemently denied, and Benjamin Briard, who was arrested in May 2020 and sentenced to eight years and eight months. in jail for espionage, which he denies.
