Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said today, Sunday, that what he described as the “scandalous gas agreement” with Lebanon “was a mistake from the beginning,” stressing that he is looking for a loophole to cancel it.
This came in statements made by Cohen – from the Likud Party – to Israeli Army Radio, in the wake of violent attacks launched by the army on Lebanon, which resulted in hundreds of deaths, injuries, and thousands of displacement.
Cohen said: “I am looking for a way or a loophole to cancel the scandalous gas agreement that was signed with Lebanon.”
He considered that the gas agreement that Israel signed with Lebanon, under the change government headed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, “was a mistake from the beginning,” adding: “We will be careful to fix it.”
In late 2022, Lebanon and Israel signed an agreement to demarcate the maritime borders between the two countries after indirect negotiations that continued for two years, with American mediation, regarding an area rich in oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean, with an area of 860 square kilometers.
Since then, international energy companies have begun submitting bids to prospect and explore the targeted marine blocks located in Lebanese territorial waters on the Mediterranean Sea.
Since September 23, the Israeli army has launched the most violent and widespread attack on Lebanon since the confrontations with Hezbollah began about a year ago, resulting as of Saturday evening in 816 deaths, including children and women, and 2,507 wounded.
