 The disagreements over the offshore gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea are building up between Lebanon and Israel. On July 25th, Hisbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave an interview in which he warned Israel about the extraction of gas from the fields. Lebanon and Israel are locked in a disagreement over how much of the natural gas fields they can clean. The long-standing issue escalated in June when Israel sent a production ship to the gas fields. What are the implications of Nasrallah's speech? How does the conflict over the offshore gas fields tie in with the larger processes taking place in the region? Ghania Khalik of breakthrough news explains. Over the last month, there's been increasing escalation, at least rhetorically, between Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hisbullah, and the Israelis over these gas fields that have yet to be demarcated between the Israelis and the Lebanese. And the Israelis basically want a huge portion of the gas fields for themselves, part of which belong to Lebanon. And the Lebanese government has been too weak to really fight for what it has a right to. And the Americans are mediating, and of course the Americans mediating just means, you know, the Americans pushing for what Israel wants. And so Hisbullah has sort of stepped in to try to pressure everybody, the Lebanese government, the Americans, and the Israelis to give Lebanon, you know, even part of what it's owed. And so in recent speeches that Nasrallah has given over the past several weeks, he's made comments about the gas fields saying no gas for Israel if there's no gas for Lebanon, essentially threatening to even disrupt Israel's ability to continue to exploit its own gas reserves and what is actually considered Israeli territory if Lebanon isn't given what it's owed. And this, of course, is taking place in a regional context, which I would like to explain as well. You know, there are dual trends taking place in the Middle East right now. On the one hand, you've got regional players who've been pursuing a kind of rapprochement, as we've seen with the Iranians and the Saudis, in a kind of advanced process of improving relations as well as with the Emiratis and the Turks and the Qataris and Egyptians. And of course, there's the ceasefire of sorts in Yemen. And Arab countries are even improving ties with Syria, right reopening embassies and calling for Syria to rejoin the Arab League, you know, which the Americans are very upset about, you know, while the Emiratis are also improving ties with the so-called pro-Iran Shia groups in Iraq. And all of this bodes well for the region. It means countries have wiseened up and they don't want to be dragged into America's wars. And of course, this started under Trump when the Gulf countries realized that Trump might lead the region to war, which he almost did on several occasions. But if that were to take place, of course, America would not suffer the consequences because it's protected by its distance and by oceans, much in the same way it's protected from the consequences of its wars in Europe at the moment. However, the UAE or Saudi Arabia would surely be targeted, right? If the U.S. provoked a war with Iran, that would be the target because they're considered by Iran to be extensions of America. They host American military bases. And of course, then the Houthis had hit Saudi Aramco and the Americans did nothing, really. So this is all happening at a time when the Americans have made it very clear that they want to reduce their so-called engagement in the Middle East to focus on other imperial priorities like China and Russia. Therefore, this reduced American role has been leading to improved relations between the Middle Eastern countries they mentioned. And of course, Biden tried to take advantage of this with his visit to Saudi Arabia, but that was just a public relations event showing he can visit and that we're still here, America's still here. However, on the other side of this, you have Israel, which still provokes Iran with assassinations and sabotage, as well as constant strikes in Syria against presumed Iranian or Hezbollah targets. And the nuclear talks seem stalled and unlikely to succeed, and the Israelis are lobbying hard against the success of those talks. Meanwhile, like I mentioned, Lebanese Hezbollah has been making threats that Israel, of course, can't ignore. The Israelis want to start exploring for gas in the so-called Karish field off the coast of Palestine. But this is disputed by Lebanese legal claims, which assert that this might belong to Lebanon. Meanwhile, Lebanon can't begin exploring in its kind of field off the coast because the maritime border hasn't been delineated next, which is what these negotiations were all about. Now, like I mentioned, the Americans are the mediators. But again, America cannot be an honest broker since it backs Israel with almost $400 billion a year in military aid and beyond. And of course, to make matters worse, the American appointed mediator, Amos Hodgstein, was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military before joining the U.S. government, which is kind of shocking that this is the person they appointed. And the Americans, they've seemed disinterested, right? They've seemed busy with other places, but they've also rejected Lebanese legal claims. And the Lebanese government, like I mentioned, is weak. It's corrupt. And at one point in time, not too long ago, it was willing to sell out the Lebanese people on their rights, and many in the Lebanese government still are, while the Lebanese army is way too weak to defend Lebanese sovereignty. I mean, it always has been. It's even weaker now with the collapse of the economy and people actually leaving the army as a result of that because they're getting paid like peanuts, if any, peanuts actually are probably worth more than what they're getting paid at this point, since the currency has devalued so badly. And so this is what finally provoked his Bullah to make the threats that I mentioned in recent months that Israel would not get gas if Lebanon does not get gas. And his Bullah has established red lines for an acceptable compromise, as Nisrullah has noted in his speeches, what's an acceptable compromise with the Israeli enemy to basically make it clear to cowardly Lebanese government officials that they can't let the Americans bully them. And his Bullah, also earlier this month in July, sent three drones to fly over the Israeli gas field to make it clear that they could sabotage it if Israel didn't agree to a deal, which actually really rattled the Israelis. Now the Israeli government, as we know, is in disarray right now after the government collapsed again. And as it prepares for elections, nobody wants to seem to be weak by making a compromise or opening themselves up to accusations by Netanyahu or the right that they're offering concessions to so-called terrorists. So this might actually, the situation internally in Israel might make it more difficult for a deal to be reached because of internal political decisions on how to maintain power. But time is running out. And while neither side wants a war, it actually might be forced on them by the political circumstances I mentioned. And of course by this very like stupid and lazy American mediator who is almost cartoonishly biased and fever of Israel. And he is due to come back any day now to Lebanon with an Israeli response to the Lebanese demand. And then based on the response we see, we'll know whether the region is moving towards the sort of continued calm that I mentioned taking place among certain countries or a new escalation. And I just want to also note, you know, this is also about profits. The Israelis, you know, in addition to these sort of internal dynamics that are making it less likely for the Israelis to negotiate, the Israelis also want to exploit these gas fields to sell to the Europeans to attempt to replace at least some of the sanctioned Russian gas. So they see an opportunity for profit. Meanwhile, and also one of the consequences of Israel gaining more territory as far as gas fields are concerned is they can then take that to push for a legal claim to more territory on the land border that exists right now, which is still sort of under, you know, contestation. Meanwhile, Lebanon's state electricity as is non-existent, right? Like if everyone's living off of generators, if they can afford them. But most people in Lebanon are living in the dark for a large portion of the day. And so this gas is actually one way Lebanon could help alleviate its electricity crisis, because it's dealing with this inability to purchase fuel because of low foreign reserves and actually a refusal by the central bank governor to purchase fuel for the state electricity company, which is like completely collapsed. So everyone here in Lebanon is anticipating some kind of war in the coming months over this. There are kind of always anticipating a war but this is kind of like an escalation kind of situation and any war, as we know, like wouldn't be contained or isolated at this point to one place because there are many fronts between the Israelis, the sort of pro-American elements in the region and the so-called resistance access across the Levant, you know, whether we're talking about Syria or Lebanon or Palestine or any rock. So should a war break out, which I, you know, I don't think is likely, but anything could happen. I think it could lead to something bigger across the region.