Lebanon must be firm in Israel energy dispute: Hezbollah

BEIRUT: Hezbollah on Friday urged Lebanon to stand firm in its offshore energy dispute with Israel and warned it could act against Israeli oil facilities if necessary, as the US mediates between the two countries.

In a televised address, the leader of the heavily-armed, Iran-backed movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, described the issue as a “battle for all of Lebanon”. “If Lebanon´s Higher Defence Council were to decide that (Israeli) offshore oil and gas plants. . . should be forbidden from working, I promise they would stop working within hours,” he told a rally. US diplomats have been mediating between Lebanon and Israel after a spike in tensions that also involved a dispute over a border wall which Israel is building, and Hezbollah´s growing arsenal. Nasrallah said Lebanon´s territorial waters, and efforts to explore for oil and gas in a block that lies along the contested marine border with Israel has become the most pressing issue. Lebanon signed its first exploration and production agreements last week with a consortium of France´s Total, Italy´s Eni and Russia´s Novatek.