Cyprus, Lebanon discuss carving up underseas oil, gas deposits

NICOSIA, March 5 (AFP) - Cyprus and Lebanon discussed Tuesday marking out exclusive economic zones in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a first step toward tapping gas and oil deposits offshore Cyprus, officials said.

Lebanese Electricity and Water Resources Minister Mohammad Abdel Hamid Baydoun and Cypriot Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis met here to discuss the joint exploration of oil and gas reserves. The east coast of the island of Cyprus lies only some 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of the Lebanese coast.

Rolandis said he hoped the two countries would sign an agreement within the next three months on exploiting submarine oil deposits. First there must be agreement delineating the two countries' exclusive economic zones.

"These are very important talks because a large part of our sea area is close to Lebanon," Rolandis told reporters in Nicosia. "Our aim is to discover which part of the sea borders our exclusion zone."

Although Beydoun declined to comment on delineation of the sea area, Rolandis described their meeting as "positive". Cyprus is also in close talks with Egypt and Syria for joint cooperation in tapping lucrative energy resources beneath the east Mediterranean.

Last August, Cyprus said it had evidence of large offshore gas and oil deposits and was in the process of delineating its continental shelf to ward off encroachment.

Sunni extremists arrested by Lebanon for calling Saudi prince "traitor"

CHTAURA, Lebanon, March 5 (AFP) - Three Sunni Muslims have been arrested in Lebanon and their cases referred to an anti-terrorism unit for distributing leaflets violently hostile to a Middle East peace initiative from Saudi Arabia, security sources said Tuesday.

Supporters of the fundamentalist Sunni At-Tahrir group handed out the leaflets overnight in the eastern Beqaa Valley area, which is effectively under Syrian control, they said. The At-Tahrir group is hostile towards Saudi Arabia's ruling Wahabite dynasty.

The leaflet calls Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz a "traitor" for his suggestion that Israel return to its pre-June 4, 1967, borders in exchange for normalisation of ties with all Arab countries.

The initiative, which the de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom plans to present to the Arab summit in Beirut on March 27, has won the backing of most Arab states, but some, such as Syria and Lebanon, have voiced reservations.

The Sunni fundamentalists claimed the initiative was "a reward" for Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "for massacres committed in Palestine." The extremist group said "the solution was to extract the Zionist entity (Israel) by its roots and all recognition or negotiation with the Jews is an unacceptable betrayal."

Israel passes bill to keep Lebanese militant leaders jailed

JERUSALEM, March 4 (AFP) - Israel's parliament passed a bill Monday night to enable authorities to keep two Lebanese militant leaders in prison, after a heated debate between right-wingers and Arab-Israeli deputies. The two Lebanese Muslim leaders were both kidnapped by Israeli troops and are being held in exchange for news of a missing Israeli air force officer shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid has been detained since 1989, while Mustapha Dirani has been held since 1994. Israeli air force flight navigator Ron Arad was captured by the pro-Syrian Amal movement when Dirani was the movement's intelligence chief.

Dirani's political organisation, Faithful Amal, later split from Amal and is now close to the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, of which Obeid was a spiritual leader and operations officer in southern Lebanon.

The MPs passed the Imprisonment of Illegal Combatants Law by 38 votes to 19 votes, with two abstentions. The law says that members of groups hostile toward Israel who are not part of another country's army may be imprisoned by the Jewish state. It does not give a time limit for the imprisonment.

The bill does not make specific reference to either of the Lebanese militant leaders, but it was widely known to be aimed at keeping them in prison and was dubbed by the press the Obeid-Dirani bill. The bill, which passed after a four hour debate, is also believed to be intended to allow Israel to imprison members of the Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement, which has frequently attacked Israel from the northern border.

During the debate Arab-Israeli deputy Issam Makhoul of the Hadash party branded Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "the head of terror," which sparked angry cries from right-wingers and appeals for calm.