A Panoramic View of the Maritime Borders ConflictBetween Lebanon and Syria - tackling the issue through different analytical perspectives

Opinion Policy Analysis by Yara Dally, Visiting Contributor

April 27th, 2021

In early March of 2021, Syria had signed a contract that gave a Russian entity, namely the “Capital Limited Company”, the exclusive right for oil exploration "in the offshore Block No.1 in the Syrian exclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Tartous Governorate, up to the Syrian-Lebanese maritime boundaries, over an area of 2,250 square kilometers" in the Mediterranean Sea, according to said signed contract.

The Contract Period is divided into two phases as it appears. The first consist of an exploration period and it is anticipated to be of a duration of four years, commencing upon the signing the contract. There is however, the possibility to extend it for additional three years at the request of the company, as per the contract. Subsequently, the second period, is referred to as the development and production phase, and its duration is an estimated 25 years, which as well has the potential to prospectively be extended for an additional five years. 

Based on the map in Figure1. Found below, Block No.1 in the Syrian Exclusive Economic Zone overlaps with a significant portion of the Lebanese Exclusive Economic Zone – specifically in blocks No.1 and No.2 with a total maritime area of circa 750 square kilometers.

Figure 1

A Historic Event 

Lebanon and Syria clash on maritime border is not new. Back in 2010, Lebanon unilaterally identified the northern border point No.6 and reported its very coordination to the United Nations. Further, in 2011 Lebanon re-corrected its reports from 2010 by fixing point No.7 and the United Nations was subsequently notified through thorough follow-up. 

It was between the years of 2010-2012 that there existed written commination discussing the necessity and urgency to negotiate the marine border delimitation between the Lebanese Government and the Syria Government via their Ministry of Energy and Water. It’s worth noting that in the year 2012, the Lebanese Government postponed the decision-making progress regarding the marine border delimitation with the Syrian Government. This was arguably, yet unquestionably, for political reasons and circumstances – at the time Lebanon’s position towards Syria in the context of the latter’s internal war in 2011 lacked clarity.

Despite everything, in 2013 Lebanon had started its first biding round on the Lebanese blocks in its Exclusive Economic Zone for companies for the purpose of starting to invest for oil and gas exploration. One of these chosen blocks, was block No.1 along the northern borders with Syria and block No. 4 – as well as block No. 8, 9, and 10 along the southern borders with occupied Palestine. Expectedly, as Lebanon has not yet finalized its marine border delimitation with Syria, an objection from the latter country was brought about in 2014 by Bashar Jaafari, Syrian permanent representative to the UN. “Lebanon's demarcation of its borders came by decree, which is an internal legislation issued under Lebanese national laws, and it has no mandatory character” noted Jaafari. 

After the formerly mentioned objection, Lebanon and Syrian had been in an ongoing discussion to formally sit down, negotiate and conclude the borders demarcation – yet with no formal final deliverables as this matter was never mentioned in by the Council of Ministers.

Current day – what actions have been taken? 

From April 09 till April 11 no official measures had been taken by the Lebanese authorities. 

In exclusive conversation and interview with H.E. Ghady El Khoury, the Ambassador and Director of Political and Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon, the delay in response was brought to discussion. El Khoury tells The Phoenix Daily that no official documents had been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in this regard, and consequently a reply is not in order without documents in hands. In fact, Lebanese authorities had been notified by a journalist who had presented the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Russian contract. 

April 12,2021 a letter inviting the Syrian counterpart to start discussions about borders delimitations was sent since it’s the interest of both parties involved.

On April 13, 2021 the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Charbel Wehbe handed the memorandum to the Ambassador of Syria in Lebanon Mr. Ali Abdul Karim.

However, “there is no really reason to panic” El Khoury tells The Phoenix Daily, “there is a reason to address this issue seriously, and if we operate in a panic we’re more likely to make a mistake.” added the Ambassador and Director of Political and Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon.

In reference to El Khoury’s statement, Mrs. Laury Haytayan – a Lebanese oil and gas expert of the MENA region and current Director of the Natural Resource Governance Institute – tells The Phoenix Daily exclusively that “it’s illogical that the Lebanese Government had been notified of this matter via the media, we’re not two countries in dispute as we are with our enemy Israel”. 

Haytayan added that “Lebanon has its own ambassador in Syria where in his minimum duties in to report to Lebanon any matter or issues that is related to Lebanon, this contract has been finalized a year ago, and recently first of March the Syrian parliament had passed the act” earlier this month in an interview with The Phoenix Daily.

The questionable authenticity of Capital, the Russian company 

On the other hand, “Capital” the Russian company who is assigned by the Syrian for oil exploration, is a new name in the oil and gas sector. The company’s activities in this sector are not yet clear and hardly even known. It was only established a few years back in 2017 with its headquarters in Saint Petersburg, Russia and being registered at the Russian Commercial Registration under the number of 7806294969. Many experts argue that the lack of industry experience and history of the company raises concern about its legitimacy and authenticity. In fact, it is not unfair to question the potentiality of it being just a smokescreen for people of political influence whether Syrian, Russian, or even Lebanese. Regardless of any corruption or dirty politics related to this agreement; what matters for Lebanon is that a company like Capital, with no previous experience, may not adhere to the international laws and legal norms/standards. Particularly in regard to the international legal framework which sets forth that in all contracts for oil and gas exploration, exploration is prohibited in areas which are classified as disputed areas. 

In the occurrence that these speculations prove true, nothing could deter Capital, as the assigned company by the Syrian for oil exploration, from exploring in the disputed area, and thereby the overlapping of 750 square kilometers with the Lebanese Exclusive Economic Zone. 

A Geopolitical Perspective

At the same time, we are also in a continuous diplomatic conflict with occupied Palestine when it comes to our southern maritime boarders. In the southern borders, where exploration is beginning, the Syrian Government that had too assigned a Russian company for oil exploration.

Simultaneously to this, a newly announced a diplomatic deal that occured between Greece, Cyprus, and occupied Palestine following 10 long years of negotiations emerged. The deal comes in light of high tensions in the maritime just outside Lebanon, and the negotiations agreed on the division of borders between the three countries. The agreement of this deal is motivated by the political desire to accelerate the production of the common market; Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum which is regarded as a project of shared interest in Europe's energy infrastructure. Benefiting countries are as follows Greece, Cyprus, Occupied Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, France, and Italy. The higher the production of each country, the higher the common profit will be seeing as they would be operating as one market. 

Not to forget the so called new presence of Russians in the region, and their appetite in investing in the regions resources and at the same time being close to their opponents the NATO and EU.

All nations are searching for ways to stand forward and working out to release their interest at any costs; and Lebanon is standing there, drowning in its own political, economic and financial dilemmas. Mr. Gilbert Doumit, Managing Partner at Beyond Group and Political Entrepreneur explained to The Phoenix Daily that “What we are witnessing today is not an incident, this is the result of several years of under the table negotiations happening between geopolitical actors over this important resource in the region”

According to Doumit’s analysis “The West seems pushing us to let go of our rights on the southern borders, and the East would like us to let go of our rights on the northern borders while Lebanon has no vision and leverage to negotiate its own interests”

It is in fact so that “On a geopolitical level, there might be an underlying agreement, direct or indirect, to impose on Lebanon letting go of its rights on both the Southern Northern borders, as part of a deal that makes Lebanon eventually pays the price for it.” he further stressed. 

On a national level, Doumit is of the view that “Political elites having loyalties to external actors rather than citizens might be selling our rights to please their political sponsors in the region, in return for staying in power. Those rights in our natural resources are the wealth we want to pass on to the youth and the next generations to come hello.”

Measures to be taken and the alternatives

Diplomatic negation is the ultimate solution. There exist alternatives but on an international level, referring to the International Court of Justice, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, or other forms of arbitration would require both States to agree to enter an international legal case. Worth noting that counting on the international court is good but unfortunately by default all cases took a lot of time some of them reached 30 years even.