Beirut: Friday sparked a debate in Lebanon after it seemed that the nation had recognised Israel, the country's neighbour, according to a document on the demarcation of maritime borders.
While there are ongoing negotiations between the two countries amid broader political unrest, they are technically at war with one another.
The influence of vehemently anti-Israel political groups in Lebanon, particularly the Hezbollah group with ties to Iran, has also made it more difficult for relations to warm up.
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The disputed document, No. 71836, which was made public on the UN's official website, stated that "the secretary-general of the United Nations hereby certifies that the following international agreement has been registered with the secretariat in accordance with article 102 of the United Nations charter... constituting a maritime agreement between the state of Israel and the Lebanese Republic (with the letters, Oct. 18, 2020), Jerusalem, Oct. 27, 2020 and Baabda."
After the document was published, a number of Lebanese social media users criticised the late Michel Aoun and Hezbollah, asserting that it demonstrated how similar the maritime agreement was to a treaty recognising the state of Israel.
"The UN document is undeniably clear; Lebanon recognised the state of Israel, and Hezbollah's role has become limited to protecting the common borders," an activist said to Arab News on the condition of anonymity.
Some have referred to the maritime border between the two countries as "historic," requiring protracted negotiations that were mediated by the US.
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The political and economic crisis that has gripped Lebanon recently made it more urgent for Beirut to speed up oil and gas exploration in its territorial waters, and its signing came as Israel started to extract oil and gas from the contentious Karish field that is located between the two countries.
The agreement's text was approved by Aoun and former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in two separate letters. The letters were delivered to US mediator Amos Hochstein at the UN headquarters in Naqoura, which is near the border between Israel and Lebanon, without any handshakes between the representatives of the two sides.
The deal gave Israel and Lebanon joint access to the Qana field in exchange for French energy company TotalEnergie paying a portion of its drilling profits to Israel. The entire Karish field was given to Israel.
Lapid referred specifically to Lebanon's recognition of Israel when he said the border demarcation agreement was a diplomatic and economic success at the time. A hostile nation recognising Israel through a written agreement and in front of the entire international community "is not something that happens every day," he said.
Lebanon at the time denied any recognition of Israel, but that assertion has since been called into question.
According to Muhannad Haj Ali, a researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center, "Lebanon recognised the state of Israel through the maritime border demarcation agreement.
"Lebanon exchanged its recognition card for border stability and the chance to gain from the wealth of the petrol industry. The negotiations between Israel and the Arab world previously depended on that particular card, he continued.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, hailed the deal as a huge victory for the resistance, the state, and Lebanon. The conditions under which the agreement was signed serve as evidence that normalisation cannot even be discussed, he claimed.
Nasrallah had threatened to use force during the negotiations with Israel to stop Israeli exploration of the Karish field. "With regard to the resistance, the mission is over," he declared after signing the document. All of the extraordinary measures used by the resistance are now finished.
