Alwaght- The Lebanese President Michel Aoun said that “Lebanon has made a decision to defend itself in case of an Israeli aggression or encroachment on its rightful access to its offshore oil and gas resources.”
“So far, there has been no attack and it seems unlikely that Israel will carry out its threats,” he told the Egyptian TV channel “ON live” on Sunday night, underlining the diplomatic and political intervention of certain major powers to settle this dispute.
President Aoun reiterated that he gave no importance to Israeli regime's “verbal provocations”, but warned “against new wars if these provocations are translated into action”.
He called for resolving the issue of contentious border points, refusing Israel’s construction of a wall on Lebanese territory.
The Lebanese has granted licenses to a consortium of the three international companies to carry out exploratory drilling in Lebanon’s Block 4 and Block 9 territorial waters and determine whether they contain oil and gas reserves.
The announcement did not go down well in Tel Aviv, which claims sovereignty over Block 9.
"When they issue a tender on a gas field, including Block 9, which by any standard is ours ... this is very, very challenging and provocative conduct here,” said Israeli regime's war minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah has also vowed to defend the rights of the country in oil and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean region against any new Israeli aggression.
