The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported this morning, within the past three hours, that a meeting last week in Doha between Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan was tense and negative due to Ankara's dissatisfaction with Lebanon's maritime border agreement with Cyprus, signed without coordination with Turkey or Syria. According to the Al-Akhbar report, Fidan informed Salam that Turkey views the agreement as an unjustified violation of regional balances, ignoring directly involved countries and infringing on the rights of Turkey, Syria, and even Lebanon itself, placing Beirut in a fragile legal and political position for future maritime conflicts. The Turkish minister expressed astonishment at Lebanon's participation in the Middle East Gas Forum alongside Egypt, Cyprus, and Israel, contrasted with its lack of openness to maritime cooperation with Turkey, described as a friendly country, the report stated. Al-Akhbar, affiliated with Hezbollah, published these details from the sidelines of an economic forum in Doha, highlighting ongoing regional tensions over eastern Mediterranean maritime boundaries.
