cta-image

Donate

Donations from readers like you allow us to do what we do. Please help us continue our work with a monthly or one-time donation.

Donate Today
cta-image

Subscribe Today

Subscribe to receive daily or weekly MEMRI emails on the topics that most interest you.
Subscribe
cta-image

Request a Clip

Media, government, and academia can request a MEMRI clip or other MEMRI research, or ask to consult with or interview a MEMRI expert.
Request Clip
memri
Aug 08, 2022
Share Video:

Lebanese Forces Spokesman Charles Jabbour On Israel-Lebanon Maritime Border Dispute: Delineating Borders, Extracting Natural Gas Would Only Serve Hizbullah, Not The Lebanese People – We Should Not Do This

#9755 | 01:38
Source: MTV (Lebanon)

Charles Jabbour, the spokesman of the Lebanese-Christian Lebanese Force Party, said in an August 8, 2022 show on MTV (Lebanon) that Lebanon should not delineate its maritime borders with Israel or extract offshore natural gas because this would only serve Hizbullah, and not the Lebanese people. He said that anyone who supports this is "conspiring against Lebanon," and he said that Lebanon's leadership cannot be trusted. Jabbour clarified that this is his personal opinion, and not necessarily the opinion of the Lebanese Forces party. For more about Charles Jabbour, see MEMRI TV Clip No. 9335. For more about the maritime border dispute between Israel and Lebanon, see MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 1640.

Charles Jabbour: "Can we trust these rulers, who have laid everything to waste, to extract the natural gas? What will they do with it? They will take it. You have three statelets in Lebanon: the Hizbullah state, which is bankrolled by the Lebanese state; the Syrian regime, which is financed by the hard work of the Lebanese people; and you have the existing corrupt state. These three states..."

Interviewer: "But today..."

Jabbour: "We must not go for the delineation of the [maritime] border, and we must not extract the natural gas. All those who support border delineation and the extraction of natural gas are conspiring against Lebanon and the Lebanese people. Extracting gas today..."

Interviewer: "Is this your party's position?"

Jabbour: "It is my position. I am not speaking on behalf of the Lebanese Forces now."

Interviewer: "Because two weeks ago, your party supported the border delineation..."

Jabbour: "I am talking on my own behalf. I am a journalist like you. This is my position, not the position of my party. This is my journalistic position. I wrote an article about it. Delineating the border and extracting gas would serve the Hizbullah state, not the State of Lebanon."

Interviewer: "It depends how it is done. It depends how it is done."

Jabbour: "It doesn't matter. Any revenue from the gas would benefit the [Hizbullah] state. You will only be able to properly delineate the border and extract gas when there is a new state that does not bow down before Hizbullah. But how can we extract gas when it would only benefit the Hizbullah state?"

Share this Clip: