JERUSALEM - Israel will submit a claim to the United Nations in the next few days demarcating its maritime boundary with Lebanon, officials here said yesterday, amid a dispute between the two countries over an area of the Mediterranean Sea that is potentially rich with energy resources.
So when you going to submit one demarcating Israel's borders with Palestine?
The Israeli Cabinet approved a map of the Israeli-proposed line yesterday.
Israel’s line stakes out more territory for itself than one that Lebanon drew and submitted to the UN a few months ago. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the boundary drawn by the Lebanese conflicted with the line that Israel had agreed upon with Cyprus and, more significantly, with the line that Lebanon itself had agreed upon with Cyprus in 2007.
Since Israel recently confirmed the existence of a major natural gas field off its northern coast, drawing a maritime boundary with Lebanon is now a matter of some urgency.
Officials here have said that the gas discovery could turn Israel into an energy exporter, a surprising turnaround for a country with a long history of dependence on foreign energy in a largely hostile region.
Let the price-gouging and blackmail begin.
Noble Energy of Houston, which is working with several Israeli partner companies, said that the field, named Leviathan, has at least 16 trillion cubic feet of gas, at a likely market value of tens of billions of doll
Last year, the US Geological Survey estimated that more than 120 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas reserves lie beneath the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, most of it within Israeli territory.
Of course the US would say that.
But the windfall has spurred Lebanon to auction undersea energy exploration rights and to draw its own maritime boundaries, worsening tensions between the two countries, which have no diplomatic relations.
Yeah, never mind the Israeli flyover violations.
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"Seized munitions fatally ignite on Cyprus" by Associated Press / July 12, 2011
MARI, Cyprus - Dozens of containers of gunpowder seized years ago from an Iranian cargo ship exploded at Cyprus’s main naval base yesterday in a massive blast that killed 12 people, wounded 62, and wrecked a major power station, causing extensive blackouts.
So who committed the sabotage and why?
The head of the island nation’s navy, Commodore Andreas Ioannides, was killed and its defense minister and military chief resigned.
Who would have wanted them assassinated?
Ioannides’s son asserted that top officials had repeatedly ignored his father’s warnings that the gunpowder was stored unsafely.
That's the lame-ass cover-up excuse?
Defense ministry officials would not comment on the allegation.
A Cypriot official said right after the blast that a brush fire had ignited more than 90 containers confiscated in 2009 from a ship heading from Iran to Syria. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, later said that the fire may have started inside one of the containers.
????????????
The gunpowder was seized after the United Nations said the Cypriot-flagged M/V Monchegorsk was breaching a ban on Iranian arms exports. Iran has frequently been accused of smuggling arms and munitions through Syria to anti-Israeli militants in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
The blast knocked out the island’s main power station, causing widespread power cuts throughout the day. The Electricity Authority said the station won’t immediately come back online, while officials appealed to the public to reduce electricity and water consumption, as capacity at desalination plants had been scaled down.
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Went a little off course there. So what else can I grab from the Globe?
"Lebanese lawmakers approve new Cabinet; Body dominated by Hezbollah" July 08, 2011|By Massoud A. Derhally, Bloomberg News
BEIRUT - Lebanon’s new government under billionaire Najib Mikati won the parliamentary vote of confidence it needs to start work.
Related:
"Mikati, 55, a Sunni billionaire businessman known as a moderate who has good relationships with Syria, Turkey, Arab neighbors, and the West.... a graduate of Harvard University.... someone who would have credibility in the Sunni community after Hariri’s ouster."
Sixty-eight lawmakers in the 128-seat parliament voted yesterday for the Cabinet, dominated by ministers from the Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah movement and its allies. Supporters of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who did not attend, walked out of the chamber in Beirut as voting began. Lawmakers voted after three days of debate on the 30-seat Cabinet’s policy document.
The ministers were criticized by lawmakers allied with Hariri, whose government collapsed in January amid a dispute with Hezbollah over an inquiry by a United Nations tribunal into the 2005 killing of his father, Rafiq Hariri. Legislators said in the debate that the new Cabinet is “against the international community’’ and that the policy brief is a “coup against democracy’’ that “threatens, intimidates, and warns against dealing with international justice.’’
Related: U.N. Haranguing Hezbollah About Hariri
Hezbollah pressed Hariri before the fall of his government to disavow Lebanese cooperation with the United Nations tribunal. The group rejects the court, saying it is unconstitutional, biased, and part of a US-Israeli plot to target Hezbollah and Syria, which supports it.
It's a tool, yeah.
Hezbollah wanted Hariri to end Lebanon’s financing of 49 percent of the tribunal’s costs.
I wouldn't want to pay for an investigation into something I had nothing to do with, either?
Didn't that make Syria pull out of Lebanon, cui bono?
The court issued warrants on June 30 for members of the group, prompting Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to pledge that it will not hand the suspects over.
The Cabinet referred to the UN inquiry into Hariri’s killing in its policy document, saying: “Out of respect for international resolutions, the government affirms its commitment for the truth to be revealed’’ and will “follow the progress of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which was established in principle to achieve truth and justice, far away from any politicization or revenge, and without any negative impact on Lebanon’s stability, unity, and civil peace.’’
Hariri’s Future Movement, some members of which have characterized Mikati’s coming to power as a betrayal, said on July 3 that the new Cabinet and “all who sit on its table is a government which turns against the Lebanese people who triumphed for justice and freedom.’’ The movement said it will continue to support the UN tribunal “to achieve justice, preserve the Lebanese people’s dignity and rights,’’ and vowed to say “No to Hezbollah’s government, yes to freedom and justice. Yes to coexistence, democracy and the Constitution.’’
Mikati’s government, in the policy statement, said it “adheres to the right of Lebanon’s people, army, and resistance to liberate or retrieve the Shebaa Farms, Kfar Shouba Hills, and the Lebanese part of Ghajar Village, as well as to defend Lebanon by all available legal means,’’ referring to areas still considered to be occupied by Israel.
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"Assassination suspects urged to surrender" July 06, 2011|Associated Press
BEIRUT - Four Hezbollah members indicted in the 2005 assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister cannot stay fugitives forever and should get lawyers, the defense chief of an international tribunal said yesterday.
The suspects have until mid-September to contact the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Francois Roux, head of the court’s defense office, said in an interview. After that, Roux said, the tribunal’s judges will hold proceedings in absentia and he will appoint defense lawyers on their behalf.
“Families can protect them, communities can protect them, but a person cannot remain a fugitive for the rest of his life,’’ Roux said.
The alleged role of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri threatens to trigger a potentially violent crisis in this Arab nation. The Shi’ite militant group denies any role in the killing of Hariri and vows never to turn over any of its members.
“All those who support the unjust decision to issue indictments - they support oppression, they hide the truth and justice,’’ Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s chief, said in a speech broadcast to followers yesterday. “[They] are hiding the real killer, which is Israel.’’
Yup.
The debate over the indictments has polarized Lebanon’s rival political factions, with Hezbollah and its allies pitted against a Western-backed bloc headed by Hariri’s son, Saad. It also has deepened bitter tensions between Sunnis and Shi’ites in Lebanon. Rafik Hariri was one of Lebanon’s most powerful Sunni leaders.
I'm no longer buying that particular piece of Zionist propaganda anymore, sorry.
See who is leading the country?
Roux would not say if any of the men had contacted his office so far. He said he was confident that at least some of the suspects would come forward.
“My experience has shown - and I have 38 years of experience in political cases and trials - it tells me that I wouldn’t be surprised if some people decided to contact a lawyer, but not all of them,’’ Roux said....
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“Families can protect them, communities can protect them, but a person cannot remain a fugitive for the rest of his life,’’ Roux said.
The alleged role of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri threatens to trigger a potentially violent crisis in this Arab nation. The Shi’ite militant group denies any role in the killing of Hariri and vows never to turn over any of its members.
“All those who support the unjust decision to issue indictments - they support oppression, they hide the truth and justice,’’ Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s chief, said in a speech broadcast to followers yesterday. “[They] are hiding the real killer, which is Israel.’’
Yup.
The debate over the indictments has polarized Lebanon’s rival political factions, with Hezbollah and its allies pitted against a Western-backed bloc headed by Hariri’s son, Saad. It also has deepened bitter tensions between Sunnis and Shi’ites in Lebanon. Rafik Hariri was one of Lebanon’s most powerful Sunni leaders.
I'm no longer buying that particular piece of Zionist propaganda anymore, sorry.
See who is leading the country?
Roux would not say if any of the men had contacted his office so far. He said he was confident that at least some of the suspects would come forward.
“My experience has shown - and I have 38 years of experience in political cases and trials - it tells me that I wouldn’t be surprised if some people decided to contact a lawyer, but not all of them,’’ Roux said....
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