The Eastern Mediterranean has been replenished with another borderThe waters of the Eastern Mediterranean wash the shores of Cyprus, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel and Egypt.
There are a lot of problems accumulated here. Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the demarcation of the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon.
The proposed maritime border begins near the headquarters of the Blue Helmets in Lebanon, operating since 1978. Back in the last century, four peacekeeping missions were deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean: UN Armistice Monitoring Organization (UNTSO, 1948); UN Forces in Cyprus (1964); UN Forces in the Golan Heights (1974); UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL, 1978). At the beginning of this century, the office of the UN Special Representative for Lebanon also appeared.
The UN Security Council extended the mandate of the mission in Lebanon 34 times, the UN General Assembly adopted 49 resolutions on financial and other issues. However, the maritime junction (unlike the Gordian one) between Israel and Lebanon remained unbroken.
"BLUE CAPS"The UN forces in Lebanon have been actively engaged in maritime peacekeeping since 2006.
For the first time in the history of the United Nations, the "blue Capless" (or naval peacekeepers) and the Operational Naval Unit (OMC) were deployed at the request of the Lebanese authorities in accordance with the mandate of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) after the 2006 war.
The deployment of the MLA was an important step that prompted Israel to lift the naval blockade of Lebanon.
Deployed since October 2006, the MLA supports the Lebanese Navy in controlling territorial waters, ensuring the security of maritime borders and entry points and preventing unauthorized entry of weapons or related materiel by sea into Lebanon.
The MLA also assists the Lebanese Navy in increasing its combat capability, conducting a number of different training and joint exercises so that the Lebanese Navy assumes all the responsibilities necessary for interception operations at sea. The operational management of the OMS is carried out by the commander of the compound with the rank of rear admiral. Since January 2021, the OMS has been under the command of German Rear Admiral Andreas Mugge.
The area of maritime operations extends along the entire length of the Lebanese coast (110 nautical miles), and is 48 nautical miles wide, reaching international waters.
Currently, the OMS consists of the Greek frigate Adrias, the Turkish corvette Heybeliada, the German corvette Erfurt, the Bangladeshi corvette Sangram and the Indonesian corvette Sultan Iskandar Muda, as well as one helicopter and 574 naval personnel. All the ships of the OMS have been commissioned in the current century. They use the ports of Beirut, Limassol (Cyprus) and Mersin (Turkey).
On July 28, 2022, the MLA conducted a naval exercise off the coast of Lebanon to improve coordination between multinational ships. The joint exercise included coordinated live firing, ship-to-ship maneuvers, and ship-to-ship communication training. In parallel, the Indonesian naval helicopter practiced the transportation of crew and cargo from ship to ship.
This is the sixth such teaching. It is planned to repeat them every two to three months.
CHANGE OF COMMANDERIn February 2022, the UN General Assembly appointed Major General Aroldo Lazaro Saenz (Spain) as the head of the mission and Commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.
This is the 19th commander, and the representative of Spain is appointed for the second time.
General Lazaro made a career in the Spanish army. He held several command positions: from platoon commander to rifle brigade commander. As a staff officer, he served in the training and doctrinal command of the Spanish Army; at the headquarters of the European Rapid Reaction Force (EUROFOR) in Florence, Italy; at the headquarters of the NATO Rapid Deployment Corps in Valencia, Spain; was Chief of Staff of the X Mechanized Brigade of the Spanish Army Guzman el Bueno in Cordoba, and later - the commander of this brigade.
General Lazaro has extensive international experience, including combat operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the NATO Stabilization Force and the European Union Rapid Reaction Force. He has an academic background in diplomacy, peace and security. In addition to Spanish, General Lazaro speaks English, French and Italian.
It has 9,995 military personnel, including 701 women, from 48 troop-contributing countries; 242 international civilian staff, including 95 women, and 553 national civilian staff, including 153 women.
In addition, there are 50 military observers in the Observer Group in Lebanon, including 11 women from UNTSO.
Russia has sent four military observers to Lebanon.
THE PROBLEM IS IN THE PERPENDICULAR AND BEARINGThe conversation about the demarcation of the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon has been going on for almost 10 years.
And recently, representatives of Israel and Lebanon held several rounds of negotiations to discuss the issue of maritime borders. These discussions were organized by the Office of the UN Coordinator for Lebanon in Ras al-Naqour (Southern Lebanon) and were conducted with the mediation of the United States. At first, the negotiations ended in vain, the participants of the negotiations changed.
Let's pay attention to the words "delimitation" and "demarcation". First, delimitation is carried out – the contractual establishment of the border on maps, usually large–scale; then demarcation is carried out - clarification and designation of the border on the ground. The author of these lines had experience of demarcation of the line of separation of troops in the Sinai Peninsula in early 1974, being a military observer of the UN.
In Nakura, the disagreements of the parties began from a starting point. It was necessary not only to put a perpendicular to the coastline and draw a demarcation line, but also to determine the bearing. Geopolitics opposed geometry. The coastline to which the perpendicular was placed was not agreed, despite the fact that both delegations armed themselves with a pile of various maps, starting in 1926.
In accordance with the terms of the 1949 armistice, only the land border between Lebanon and Israel was defined. Israel marked the maritime border so that it ran at an angle of 90 degrees to its land border, while Lebanon marked it as an extension of its land borders.
Even after the withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, Israel unilaterally established a line of buoys in the Ras al-Naqour area as the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon. So far, Israel continues to consider this line of buoys as the actual maritime border. However, Lebanon has never recognized the buoy line. The UN also does not consider it a legitimate maritime border.
The negotiations continued in mid-June 2022. Israeli-born American emissary Amos Hochstein (Senior Advisor to the US State Department on Global Energy Security) visited Lebanon and Israel. In 1992-1995, he served in the Israeli army, then left for the United States. According to the Jerusalem Post, he is listed at No. 21 in the list of the 50 most influential Jews of 2022.
In the summer, correspondents from different countries got down to business. They were reporting from the seashore, showing the Israeli drilling platform from different angles, photos of the American representative also flashed everywhere. They showed the coastal point of the "blue line" with the Israeli and Lebanese flags – the supposed location of the perpendicular in the direction of the offshore field.
And the dynamics of events at sea was as follows. In June, the OMS ship tried to patrol the marine area near the Karish offshore natural gas field. The Israelis warned him about the inadmissibility of approaching this area.
Further – more: six Israeli fighter jets maneuvered near the ship, causing a supersonic strike and launching several flares. The next day, six Israeli fighter jets flew over the same vessel. In addition, the OMS vessel detected an electronic signature of a fire control radar station (radar) heading in its direction in lockdown mode.
There were other incidents (according to the UN). On June 29, 2022, Israeli forces shot down a Hezbollah drone flying over the Mediterranean Sea in the exclusive economic zone of Lebanon. On July 2, Israel shot down three drones of the same Hezbollah from Lebanon, which were heading towards the Karish gas field. One was shot down by an F-16 fighter jet, and the other two were shot down by the Israeli Navy's Eilat corvette.
Israel also said it would take all necessary measures to protect the field, including the deployment of naval forces and the installation of the Iron Dome missile defense system. The Israeli Prime Minister flew around the field area by helicopter. In turn, Hezbollah did not skimp on threats.
In October, it was reported that Israel is introducing a new missile ship, the S-80 corvette, capable of countering future threats. The Israeli Navy must protect strategic infrastructure, including gas platforms.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council continued to monitor tensions over the Karish natural gas field and developments related to negotiations between Israel and Lebanon mediated by the United States. Analysts believe that not only diplomats, but also the military of both sides contributed to the settlement of the maritime hub.
At the end of the summer, negotiations on the maritime border turned into a calm – let's remember that in the days of the sailing fleet, calm was an unpleasant and even dangerous phenomenon.
On the other hand, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon did not directly participate in the negotiations on the demarcation of the maritime border, although it provided logistical support to the negotiators.
In August, the Security Council twice considered the issue of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, and on August 31, unanimously extended the mandate of the mission for another year. The representative of the Russian Federation did not speak on this issue.
OCTOBER AGREEMENTIn the future, the maritime peacekeeping track looked like this.
The Security Council again appealed to the Lebanese Government to "submit as soon as possible a plan to increase its naval potential with a view to finally reducing the MLA and transferring its functions to the Lebanese Armed Forces."
In September, the shuttle trips of the American emissary between Israel and Lebanon resumed. The message about the results: "This is a positive step towards a solution in the right direction, but it is a difficult and thorny issue that requires additional work."
The October Agreement has its own curious details. Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement on the maritime border on October 27, 2022. For the final signing of the agreement, the delegations of the two countries gathered in Ras al-Naqour at the headquarters of UNIFIL with the assistance of the US representative and the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon. The parties agreed not with each other, but with an intermediary. The ambassadors of the USA and France were also present. Special Coordinator Joanna Vronecka represented the UN.
The text of the agreement includes four handouts and four annexes.
The Parties submit a list of coordinates for the delimitation of the maritime boundary line (LMG) to the UN in accordance with the global datum WGS8, using a geocentric global ellipsoid. At the same time, the information goes to the USA.
In addition, information is published in the Law of the Sea Bulletin and on the website of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea.
Both sides represent four identical coordinate lines. For example, the first line looks like this: "33° 06 34.15 N 35° 02 58.12 E". The line of delimitation of the territorial sea and the line of demarcation of the exclusive economic zone are defined.
It is noteworthy that the buoy line (5 km) remains the same: "The Parties agree that the status quo near the shore, including along and along the current buoy line, remains the same."
This agreement dissociates itself from the land border: the maritime agreement is concluded "without prejudice to the status of the land border."
Israel and Lebanon have also agreed to share revenues from gas production on the Mediterranean shelf.
Technical and political progress is noted, but there is still no "peace under the olives". Borders in the East are a delicate matter.
Anatoly IsaenkoAnatoly Ivanovich Isaenko is a retired lieutenant colonel, a veteran peacekeeper since 1973, a military expert on peacekeeping operations.
