...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...’s caretaker prime minister on Monday approved a draft decree expanding the country’s claims in a dispute with Israel over their maritime border that has held up hydrocarbon exploration in the potentially gas-rich area.
Hassan Diab signed off on the document after both the minister of public works and the minister of defense earlier agreed to it.
The amendment would add around 1,400 square km (540 square miles) to the exclusive economic zone claimed by Lebanon in its original submission to the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
The draft decree relating to the amendment of the initial decree 6433 of 2011 has now been referred to the presidency for approval ahead of a request to the United Nations for a formal claim to register the new coordinates for the maritime zone.
Negotiations between old foes Lebanon and Israel were launched in October to try to resolve the dispute, yet the talks, a culmination of three years of diplomacy by the United States, have since stalled.
"I expect it (the decree) will be signed as everyone, the minister of defense and the prime minister and the president, are concerned about this," minister of public works Michel Najjar told a news conference earlier on Monday.