The Legal Effects of the Maritime Border Demarcation Agreement on the Lebanese State

The issue of delimiting Lebanon’s maritime frontier and the subsequent agreement reached on October 10, 2022, and signed on October 27, 2022, extends beyond legal dimensions. The political aspects surrounding the negotiations, before and after the agreement, highlight the involvement of major international powers, which exerted pressures and subtle threats to shape the agreement to serve their interests. This article examines the legal and technical studies conducted during the negotiation process, as well as the interventions made through United Nations communications and the US political mediation led by Amos Hochstein, the Energy Affairs Advisor at the US Department of State. The agreement outlined boundary lines for potential gas and oil exploration in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. This research aims to provide an objective legal analysis of the maritime frontier demarcation agreement between Lebanon and Israel, identifying the legal gaps within the agreement and exploring potential rectifications and amendments to protect Lebanon’s interests.