UN will not define Lebanese, Israeli maritime border

U.N. will not delineate the Lebanese-Israeli maritime border after the Israeli recent discovery of a major gas well straddling their border, U.N. Spokesman Martin Nesirky on Tuesday confirmed a U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) statement.

Nesirky told the daily press briefing in answer to a question, that the U.N. position is "what UNIFIL said," adding that UNIFIL's mandate - among others to monitor the coastal waters in conformity with Security Council resolution 1701 - "does not include delineating maritime lines. We are talking about two different things: coastal waters and a disputed boundary".

The decision came after Lebanon's foreign minister on Tuesday asked the United Nations to curb Israel's offshore drilling plans, days after the discovery of the large gas field.

"We request you do everything possible to ensure Israel does not exploit Lebanon's hydrocarbon resources, which fall within Lebanon's economic zone as delineated in the maps the foreign ministry submitted to the United Nations in 2010," Foreign Minister Ali Shami said in a letter addressed to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

"Any exploitation by Israel of this resource is a flagrant violation of international law and an attack on Lebanese sovereignty," read the letter, which was carried by the state-run National News Agency.

U.S. firm Noble Energy announced last week that the Leviathan gas field, offshore from Israel, holds an estimated 450 billion cubic meters (16 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas.

The discovery, which surpasses the Tamar field discovered off the northern port of Haifa, has positioned the Jewish state as an exporter, Noble Energy said.

News of the offshore fields, which surfaced in 2010, has increased tensions between the two neighboring countries which do not have formal maritime borders and sparked an angry exchange of warnings between the two states.

Lebanon's Energy Minister Gebran Bassil has said his country plans to outline its maritime sea borders and auction off rights to explore potential offshore natural gas and petrol reserves in 2012.