'Israel' made concessions to avoid escalation in Karish: IOF official
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The Israeli Maariv newspaper reports on the former IOF Military Intelligence Directorate's take on the Karish oil field tensions in the Mediterranean.
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London-based Energean’s drill ship at the Karish natural gas field in the eastern Mediterranean (Reuters)
"Israel has made concessions in favor of Lebanon to demarcate the border to ward off the danger of escalation," said Amos Yadlin, former IOF Military Intelligence Directorate, according to the Israeli Maariv newspaper.
"Israel is showing leniency in the demarcation of the maritime borders," he said, threatening Lebanon that the IOF does not want it to turn into Gaza.
He highlighted the prominent role played by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in this case, "which is indicative of the fact that he controls what is happening in Lebanon politically and militarily, which may push the Lebanese and the Israelis to a place that the two do not want," as he put it.
He explained that "Israel today has accepted the Lebanese line, and therefore, there is no place for Nasrallah's demands concerning the Ras Al -Naqoura area."
Read more: Lebanese-Israeli maritime talks to end in few days: official
Referring to the area adjacent to an area the IOF usurped from the Palestinians and consequently occupied, Yadlin insolently demanded "compensation for ceding the maritime economic zone in Ras Al-Naqoura and all the region to the south Qana field."
"We insist on these points," he said, claiming that Sayyed Nasrallah "here has been trying to cause distortion."
"Let's give the Americans a few days, I'm ready to give them weeks, but no more than that," he said.
Furthermore, Yadlin claimed that Karish is "purely Israeli" and that "we have to pump gas from there," continuing to say, "The moment you concede to Nasrallah just once, you have to follow it with setting limits, because if the situation deteriorates toward an inevitable war, we know that we have done everything we can to prevent it."
Yesterday, Monday, Israeli media reported that the signing between "Israel" and Lebanon of the agreement “on the maritime borders” is very close, stressing that what remains are “some technical details.”
On Monday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun confirmed that negotiations related to the demarcation of the maritime border with "Israel" are in their final stages.
Read next: US mediator made new proposal to Lebanese-Israeli maritime issue
Fearing escalation, IOF request clarification on Karish statement
Last week, Israeli media said that "it was the Israeli army that requested that clarification be issued regarding [an Israeli statement regarding] the Karish field, in order not to provoke tensions against Hezbollah."
Israeli Channel 13 stated that “the fear of a confrontation with Hezbollah has increased in recent weeks regarding the Karish gas platform. Despite Israel’s announcement that the next stage regarding the activation of the platform will begin soon, it has indicated, exceptionally, that the talk is not about extracting gas from it,” commenting that “this message was drafted at the request of the security establishment.”
Channel 13 political affairs correspondent Moriah Wahlberg pointed out that "this clarification was not made in vain, but is rather aimed primarily at the ears of Hezbollah, as they in Israel do not want to create, provoke, and increase tensions, especially since these tensions already exist on this issue."
Wahlberg pointed out that “there is a disagreement in the Israeli leadership regarding the text of this statement, which was issued by the Ministry of Energy,” stressing that “some parties believed that this clarification should not be given in the matter of natural gas extraction, but parties in the army requested that this clarification be issued in order to avoid tensions with Hezbollah."
Read: 'Israel' fears military escalation against the Karish platform
It is noteworthy that a source familiar with the matter revealed to Al Mayadeen, on September 11, that the US envoy for the demarcation of the maritime border, Amos Hochstein, handed Lebanon the coordinates of the line of maritime buoys, explaining that these coordinates constitute the "last point that is being negotiated," in preparation for sending his [Hochstein's] "full offer" next week.
