Lebanon’s Maritime Boundary Delimitation by the End of October… Here’s the Legal Process

By Latifa al-Hosseini

By the end of October, Lebanon will officially sign the maritime boundary delimitation document in Naqoura. After arduous negotiations and years of waiting, the state is looking forward to accomplish its efforts in preserving its maritime resources, after regaining what was wasted by a tremendous betrayal in 2007.

Sources familiar with the preparations for signing the document affirmed to al-Ahed News that President Michel Aoun is discussing with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri the composition of the delegation that will represent Lebanon in the indirect Naqoura meeting. The delegation will sign the copies to be delivered soon by the American mediator Amos Hochstein, and then deposited in the United Nations, especially that there is no legal text that dictates the attendants of such events.

Till now, it is clear that Naqoura will witness the signing ceremony from the Lebanese side; meanwhile there will be no table or picture joining both parties to the agreement so as to avoid any suspicion of normalization, and the same applies for the copies of the documents which will be separated, each side will actually sign a paper.

What has been established so far is that Naqoura will witness the signing ceremony from the Lebanese side, and no table or picture of the two parties to the agreement will be gathered so that there is no suspicion of normalization, and the same applies to the copies.

The expert in constitutional law, Dr. Khalil Hamadeh, revealed in a meeting with al-Ahed that “What will happen will not be similar to any international agreement or treaty, which means the expected signing is not subjected to the provisions of the Article 52 of the constitution that provides a clear process to conclude agreements between states, pointing out that the aforementioned obliges the state with the approval of the Council of Ministers and to inform the Parliament when the country’s interest so requires, provided that the President undertakes the negotiations as agreed with the Prime Minister”.

According to Hamadeh, if the “agreement” contains conditions related to state finance, it needs to be passed to the Parliament and not just be to informed about it because it requires a vote in this case. However, if the treaty stipulates that it may not be rescinded year by year, then it does not require the approval of the Parliament. Thus, this explains the formula whereby Speaker Nabih Berri referred the text of the “agreement” to the Parliament, as it stated: “The President requested the Parliament’s General Secretariat to deliver a copy of the ‘demarcation’ of the southern Lebanese maritime boundaries to each deputy of the parliament after its approval in the Council of Ministers”.