BEIRUT: Lebanon might be forced to file a complaint against Israel before the U.N. Security Council under Chapter 7, said the head of Parliament’s Public Works, Transport, Energy and Water Committee, saying the Jewish state’s proposed maritime borders infringe on 860 square kilometers of Lebanese waters.

Speaking to reporters after chairing a session for the committee at Parliament Tuesday, Future bloc MP Mohammad Qabbani said that Lebanon might have to file a complaint before the U.N. Security Council under Chapter 6 which allows the U.N. to issue non-binding resolutions, or under Chapter 7.

“We can lodge a complaint [under Chapter 7] saying that Israel’s actions threaten international peace and security. Following this move, and even if Israel does not abide by the U.N. resolution [issued under Chapter 7], large international [excavating and off-shore drilling] companies will no more be able to operate in an area dubbed as disputed by the U.N.,” Qabbani said.

On July 10 Israel’s Cabinet approved a map of its proposed maritime borders, which Lebanon viewed as an “aggression” against its gas and oil rights.

The map, which Israel will submit to the U.N. for an opinion, lays out maritime borders that conflict significantly with those proposed by Lebanon in its own submission to the U.N last summer.

Israel’s maritime borders with Lebanon are believed to contain large amounts of natural gas and oil.

Qabbani said that since Israel was not a signatory of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, turning to the International Court of Justice, to the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea or resorting to arbitration to resolve the conflict with Israel was not possible.

Tullios Skufazi, a prominent Italian expert in maritime border demarcation in the Eastern Mediterranean and Swiss expert and international law professor Vera Dabbas, who is of Lebanese origin, attended the session on the committee’s invitation.

Also in attendance at the session were representatives of the Lebanese Army and the Foreign Ministry.

According to Qabbani, participants in the session examined the coordinates of maritime point 23, which Lebanon argues lies on its maritime borders with Cyprus and Israel.

“I praise the Lebanese Army for the accurate job it had made in locating maritime point 23,” Qabbani said.

Qabbani added that Israel had staged an aggression against Lebanese waters by labeling maritime point one final when demarcating borders with Cyprus, despite the fact that Lebanon and Cyprus had labeled it temporary when the two countries signed an agreement to demarcate maritime borders.

“The area which Israel claims as its exclusive economic zone and Israel’s [demarcated border with Cyprus] infringe on 860 square kilometers [in our waters],” Qabbani said.

Qabbani said that disputes with Cyprus, which he dubbed a friendly state, should be resolved “through dialogue and friendly negotiations.”

“We are ready for friendly negotiations with Cyprus to make it clear that some maritime points which we marked in the agreement signed with Cyprus are temporary,” he said.

The lawmaker highlighted the need to enact a law stipulating Lebanon’s maritime area.

“In line with the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which we signed in 1993, we are obliged to draft a Lebanese law which stipulates the areas which fall under our maritime sovereignty,” Qabbani said.

He added that this law should be drafted within a few weeks at most.

“Following this, laws which touch on some details pertaining to Lebanon’s other rights need to be drafted,” Qabbani added.

Qabbani said the committee extended its hand to the Cabinet and all administrations and ministries to defend Lebanon’s maritime borders.