Hezbollah pledged on Wednesday to confront any threats to the country's oil and gas rights after a top Israeli official urged international firms not to bid on a Lebanese offshore energy tender in disputed territory on the countries' maritime border, saying it was "very provocative."
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that "when they [Lebanon] issue a tender on a gas field, including Block 9, which by any standard is ours … this is very, very challenging and provocative conduct here."
"Respectable firms" bidding on the tender "are, to my mind, making a grave error – because this is contrary to all of the rules and all protocol in cases like this," he told an international security conference hosted by Tel Aviv University on Wednesday.
Lebanon is on the Levant Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean where a number of big subsea gas fields have been discovered since 2009, including the Leviathan and Tamar fields located in Israeli waters near the disputed marine border with Lebanon.
The Iran-backed Shiite terrorist group blasted Lieberman's "aggression," saying, "We confirm again our firm and honest position to decisively confront any assault on our oil and gas rights, and protect [Lebanon's] wealth."
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the comments were one of several "threatening messages" from Israel in recent days.
Lebanon in December approved a bid by a consortium of France's Total, Italy's Eni and Russia's Novatek for two of the five blocks put up for tender in the country's much-delayed first oil and gas offshore licensing round.
One of the awarded blocks, Block 9, borders Israeli waters. Lebanon has an unresolved maritime border dispute with Israel over a triangular area of around 330 square miles of sea that extends along the edge of three of the blocks.
Israel has not issued its own tenders for Block 9, with officials saying they were focused on blocks that would not be disputed.
"Lieberman's words about Block 9 are a threat to Lebanon and its right to sovereignty over its territorial waters," Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on his official Twitter account.
Hariri said the country would take up the comments with the "relevant international bodies to affirm its right to act in its territorial waters." His office blasted Lieberman's remarks as a "blatant provocation."
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said he had sent a letter to the United Nations two weeks ago affirming Lebanon's right to defend itself and its economic interests.
The offshore exploration and production contracts are expected to be officially signed on Feb. 9, Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil said, allowing exploration to begin.
