In an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, Hossein Ajorloo emphasized: As Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah pointed out, the agreement is for the purpose of not having a border problem in this regard in the future as long as the occupied Palestine is a neighbor of Lebanon.

As for the drawing of the borders, Ajorloo said: The borders of Lebanon and the occupied Palestine have been reached from past agreements until today; that is to say, the agreements that were signed after the French protectorate over Lebanon and the British protectorate over the occupied Palestine were signed. Those agreements include the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916, the agreements of 1920 and 1923, then the 1949 agreement which was a ceasefire in Ras Naqoura, and recently in 1996 an agreement was signed in which the Zionist regime evacuated many parts of southern Lebanon, especially in Ras Naqoura.

The expert said that following those agreements, the border between Lebanon and the occupied Palestine was formed, but the sea borders were not defined.

He added: Actually, maritime borders were not very important for the two players until two gas resources, Qana and Karish, were brought up. At first, the Lebanese government was reluctant to enter into negotiations with the Zionist regime because it considered any type of negotiation as a form of normalization of relations, but finally, due to financial needs, the insistence of the American side for the finalization of the conflict, and the Zionist regime’s desire for the exploitation of both the gas resources, the Lebanese government agreed to negotiate.

The expert on Lebanon affairs explained: Since 2013, negotiations have been going on indirectly between the two sides, and in 2020, negotiations became serious, and it was finally agreed that the Qana gas field would be for Lebanon, and the gas field of Karish would be for the Zionist regime. However, the agreement has not been finalized yet.

About the reasons for the seriousness of negotiations in recent years, Ajorloo said: Lebanon needs to exploit its gas fields due to financial problems. At the same time, because the case was not resolved, the Zionist regime started vandalism in 10 other blocks that were located north of the hypothetical line. Also, due to the fuel crisis in Europe, those resources can be considered as alternative export sources to Europe. In this regard, the Zionists had conducted many consultations and they needed to exploit the gas resources of Karish.

He further emphasized that Lebanon can also export part of its gas with international investments.

According to the expert, the Americans sought to present a successful case in the West Asian region and saw the conditions being prepared for the settlement of the case of the conflict between the Zionist regime and Lebanon.

Ajorloo says: Within Lebanon, success in extracting gas and turning Lebanon into an energy powerhouse could be a major achievement for the current president and resistance groups.

The expert emphasized that such reasons and motivations joined together to bring Lebanon at the negotiating table and take a step on the path towards becoming a power in the field of energy in the near future.

The expert on West Asia affairs explained: On the other hand, with regard to the approach of the elections and the political pressures on Yair Lapid, solving such dispute and gas exploitation can be a positive trump for him in his election case.

In conclusion, Ajorloo said that in the discussion of the border dispute between Lebanon and the Zionist regime and drafting of an agreement over it, the two sides had interests that made them willing to finally finalize the years-long negotiations.