Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah addresses supporters through a screen during a rally in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Feb. 16, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Aziz Taher.

The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday Israel was not free to start drilling for oil and gas in the disputed maritime border area between the two countries.

“If the enemy thinks they can act as they please before reaching a solution to this issue they are wrong,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

Lebanon’s cabinet had raised the question to the United Nations permanent representative and others in the international community after Israel granted US oilfield services group Halliburton an offshore drilling contract in the Mediterranean, asking to clarify whether the drilling would take part in disputed areas.

Lebanon and Israel started negotiations through a US mediator in Oct. 2020 at the UN peacekeeper’s base in Lebanon’s Naqoura.