The Energean Karish platform was placed in the marine area of the "Karish" field, causing reactions from Hezbollah.
Specifically, in a televised message last night, the leader of the group, Hassan Nasrallah, turned against both Israel and the Greek-owned gas company Energean, which has been licensed by the Israeli government to develop the field and operate the platform.
"We must prevent Israel from extracting gas from the 'Karis' platform and Hezbollah has the ability to prevent this,"[/I] Nasrallah said.
He then also addressed the Greek company saying: "And you will have consequences. You are complicit in this aggressive action. You must remove the platform from there. You will bear the responsibility for whatever happens to the platform, for the material and human losses".
Referring to the progress of the Lebanon-Israel negotiations under the auspices of the UN and with US mediation to jointly agree on the delimitation of their maritime zones, Nasrallah said that "Hezbollah will never participate in the talks, but it has every right to be informed and collect information in order to implement whatever decision it deems appropriate."[/I]
This is the first statement related to the Energean platform by the head of Hezbollah's military arm, Hassan Nasrallah, who has de facto military control of South Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Israeli military sources report that naval forces are being reinforced in the area near Energean's platform, as they consider it very likely that Hezbollah will carry out its threats.
As reported by Israeli state television, the platform will be protected by warships, navy submarines and [/B]the[/B] Iron Dome[/B] floating anti-missile device[/B]. Israeli media link the planning of military protection of the platform at the 'Karis' field with the Israeli navy's ongoing military exercise in the northern Red Sea involving a submarine.
The Karis field is located within a maritime zone covering a total area of 800 square kilometers, the sovereignty of which is claimed by Israel and Lebanon. There is an ongoing negotiation process between Israel and Lebanon to determine the boundaries of their EEZs, but for years they have been at loggerheads.
The 'Karis' platform of the Greek-owned Energean company has already been positioned at a distance of 80 km. 80 km off the coast of South Lebanon and is due to come into operation in September.
The Israeli side claims that both the field and the platform were placed within the Israeli EEZ. The Lebanese government claims that Israel and Energean illegally placed the platform within the Lebanese EEZ. Earlier this week Lebanese media reported that US mediator Amos Hochstein is due to make an emergency visit to Beirut next Sunday or Monday following an urgent invitation from the caretaker Lebanese government. This information, however, has not yet been confirmed by the US side.
Source: CNA
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