"Line 29 is a red line" reads this banner held up by protesters in Naqoura, southern Lebanon, June 11, 2022. (Credit: Aziz Taher/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Hundreds of citizens, including opposition MPs, held a sit-in on Saturday in Naqoura, South Lebanon, to call on authorities to amend Decree No. 6433 of 2011 on the demarcation of maritime borders and claim a larger exclusive economic zone delineated by Line 29.
Here’s what we know:
• The sit-in comes against a backdrop of a dispute with Israel over maritime borders after the arrival of a floating production, storage and offloading unit belonging to the London-listed power company Energean, which arrived to part of the disputed exclusive economic zone between Israel and Lebanon with the aim to start drilling the Karish gas field on behalf of the Israeli state on June 5.
• The protesters held a banner which read “Line 29 is a red line” while others waved Lebanese, Palestinian and Lebanese Communist party flags.
• Opposition MPs Melhem Khalaf (Beirut II), Halimé Kaakour (Chouf-Aley) and Firas Hamdan (South III) were present at the protest. The MPs highlighted that Line 29 is “legitimate and fixed in documents and legal texts,” rejecting all compromises on Lebanon’s maritime resources “which are the property of all citizens” in a speech given at the protest and later shared on Khalaf’s Twitter. The speech also included calls on President Michel Aoun and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to “immediately take the initiative of amending Decree No. 6433 to preserve Lebanon’s sovereign rights.”
• The opposition MPs demanded they be informed of any “negotiation” that may take place to justify forfeiting Line 29. Thirteen opposition MPs held a press conference Monday during which they declared their support of Line 29.
• The demarcation of maritime borders through indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel started in 2011 on the basis of Lebanese claims registered at the United Nations through Decree No. 6433 claiming an 860-square-kilometer zone delimited by Line 23. However, negotiations were interrupted after Lebanon intended to claim an additional 1,430-square-kilometer area delineated by Line 29, which bisects the disputed Karish field, but have postponed making the necessary amendments to Decree No. 6433.
• Early Saturday, Aoun and Mikati met in Baabda to discuss the demarcation of Lebanon’s maritime borders and agree on an official national position on the issue ahead of American mediator Amos Hochstein’s visit.