ABSTRACT
Arab states occupy the eastern and the southern shores of this median sea which they call the “White Sea”. The Transmed gas pipeline is also an important symbol of the growing functional cooperation between the European shore and the Arab shore of the Mediterranean. For the Middle Eastern countries, in particular, the significance of the Law of the Sea is understandable, given their strategic location at the meeting points of some of the busiest waterways of the world: the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Since the Red Sea is almost an Arab lake, it is understandable that there will be problems surrounding Israel’s position there. Libya also considers the Gulf of Sirte as part of its territorial waters, and this claim led to the development of a bloody confrontation with the United States in 1981 - ironically, in fact, since it occurred as the resumed tenth session of the Third UNCLOS was convening.
