Prime Minister Saad Hariri issued a statement whereby he said that “Israeli officials have been sending threatening messages to Lebanon, the most recent among which the remarks said by Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said that the gas exploration Block 9 in the Lebanese regional waters belongs to Israel and that Lebanon decided to conduct a bid over it.”
Hariri noted that this claim is void in form and content and comes which the Israeli policies of expansion and settlement to curtail the rights of others and threaten regional security.
The PM said that “the Lebanese government will follow up on the background of this statement with the concerned international parties, in order to confirm Lebanon’s legal right to act in its territorial waters,” stating that Lieberman’s statement is blatant provocation and challenge that Lebanon reject.