Lebanon didn’t get 100% of its demands in deal, says Israeli national security advisor

Though Beirut received almost all of the waters under dispute, it did not receive what it was really after in the maritime border deal, says National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata in a briefing with Israeli reporters.

“Lebanon did not receive 100% of what it wanted,” Hulata explains, “but Lebanon did get something.”

“What Lebanon really wanted, and they demanded it until the last minute, was 100% of Qana gas field. They tried to create a balance in which we get Karish and they get Qana,” Hulata says.

Instead, the text of the deal allows Israel to receive monetary compensation for a certain percentage of revenue from the Qana field.

The two sides knew that the real struggle was over the rights to gas in Qana, not the territorial waters, says Hulata.

Hulata adds that the Lebanese also failed to achieve what they wanted in terms of the border close to the shore, which was important to them because it could impact future negotiations over the land border.