A review of the protests and political upheavals in Lebanon coupled with a pretension by officials in Washington that the U.S. is concerned about the situation in Lebanon send important messages.

Developments in Lebanon appear to have entered a new phase, especially as the Lebanese Energy and Water Minister Neda Boustani has announced the start of drilling the country’s first oil well in the waters off the coast of Beirut later this year.

The oil well is to be drilled in the Mediterranean 30 kilometers from the Lebanese capital in the north. About a year and a half ago, Lebanon awarded its first offshore gas and oil exploration and production agreements to a consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek for two blocks out of ten.

Ten oil blocks have been identified in the coastal waters of Lebanon with an area about 18,000 km2.

The Americans, who have shown that the smell of oil drives them to the oil-rich countries, these days pretend that they are really concerned about the situation in Lebanon and its people. Mike Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state, has recently claimed that “the Iraqi and Lebanese people want their countries back” from Iran.

The pretension of concern by the U.S. over the situation in Lebanon, in the light of Boustani’s announcement, has led various Lebanese groups, especially Hezbollah, to feel the danger very well. Hezbollah Executive Council Deputy Chief Sheikh Ali Da’mush has warned that the U.S. and its allies are seeking to undermine the political system in Lebanon and restructure it in their own favor. The U.S. wants a government comes to power which would be under its own control and implement Washington’s plans. For example, it wants Lebanon agree to demarcation of borders based on Israel’s wishes, grant projects for oil and gas extractions to U.S. companies, permanently house the displaced Palestinian people, and target the axis of resistance and its missile power.

In addition to the United States, the Zionist regime is also happy with the unrest because Israel has disputes with Lebanon over common borders as well as oil and gas resources. Such an uprising provides the opportunity for Tel Aviv to plunder Lebanese natural resources.
The Zionist regime which is violating the Lebanese land, airspace and territorial waters frequently will take advantage of the protests in the country while Lebanese officials are doing their utmost to improve and calm the situation. Consequently, the officials will not be able to pay attention to regional issues, which is a matter that Hezbollah has repeatedly warned about.

Undoubtedly, one cannot have a positive view of sudden unrest in oil-rich countries in the Middle East under the shadow of U.S. intervention. History has shown that oil-rich countries have always suffered from domestic tensions and crises so that Western powers, that usually lead the riots, can easily plunder their oil resources. 

In any case, it seems that after Syria, the U.S. has specified Lebanon as its next destination for oil robbery, and U.S. officials are expected to make specific comments on the developments in the country in future days.

* Author: Mohammad Ghaderi , Tehran Times editor in chief 

His page on Twitter : @ghaderi62 - and Gmail address : m.ghaderi62@gmail.com