• Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah warned Israel against tapping offshore gas reserves in disputed waters.
• The warning comes as the United States ramps up efforts to resolve the maritime border dispute between Israel and Lebanon.
• Both countries claim a more than 300-square-mile stretch of the Mediterranean Sea.

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah warned Israel against attempting to tap offshore gas reserves in disputed waters between the two countries, complicating US efforts to mediate the dispute.

“The hand that reaches for any of this wealth will be severed,” Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, said on tv Tuesday in Beirut, according to Radio France Internationale (RFI).

The warning comes as the United States ramps up efforts to resolve the maritime border dispute between Israel and Lebanon, two countries that have been at odds for more than 70 years. Both countries claim a more than 300-square-mile stretch of the Mediterranean Sea, which is still being negotiated.

Lebanon claims that the Karish gas field, which Israel claims, is located within its internationally recognised waters.

Tensions between the two countries have risen this summer, with Israel reporting that it shot down three Hezbollah-launched drones en route to the Karish gas fields.

Later that month, Hezbollah released a video depicting surveillance of an Israeli-chartered ship bound for the same region.

Negotiations over the disputed region resumed in 2020 after stalling during the two countries’ 2006 war, as Lebanon seeks to recover from one of the worst economic crises in its history.

The country sees access to offshore gas reserves as critical to its recovery, with Nasrallah’s remarks coming as Lebanon awaits Israel’s response to an offer to settle the dispute made to US mediator Amos Hochstein last month.

During his speech, Nasrallah stated that “we are waiting for a response to the demands of the Lebanese state, and we will respond accordingly,” but that “we must be ready and prepared for all possibilities.”

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