LITMIR.BIZ

      Source: R. Baroudi/DTS1-2018

      When it comes to suggesting boundaries, every observation and suggestion in this work is firmly rooted in science and law, the same factors that apply to any process under UNCLOS standards. The Law of the Sea is governed by a special treaty regime consisting, for those states having signed and ratified, of the Geneva Conventions concluded in 1958 and the UNCLOS document itself, which was signed in 1982 and entered into force in 1994.

      UNCLOS includes basic rules and principles for the fair and accurate delimitation of the various zones of control described in the convention, i.e., the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and the continental shelf (including the extended continental shelf). As we shall see below, LOS applications have been used so successfully, and in so many different types of situations, that there can be no doubt: when and if the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean resolve to adhere to the UN Charter and settle their maritime disputes peacefully under UNCLOS principles, they will have the tools to do so without the need for violence or threats.

      Figure 2. Eastern Mediterranean Showing Seven Coastal States: Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel