Lebanese Free Patriotic Movement chief Gibran Bassil

Resistance is a strong point for Lebanon if the country knows to use it to demarcate the Lebanese maritime borders and extract oil and gas, Free Patriotic Movement chief Gibran Bassil said Thursday.

"Just as the equation is clear on land, it must become clear regarding gas in the sea," Bassil said.

The Lebanese parliamentarian also warned the Israeli occupation, telling "Tel Aviv", "You want your gas... then we want our gas [...] That is how a strong state acts, that is, we preserve national dignity, and that is how sovereignty is."

Bassil's words came in the wake of a speech Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered on Wednesday, where he highlighted the importance of obtaining Lebanon's rights to its territorial waters and the resources it has in it.

"The golden opportunity to extract oil and gas is right now, as in these two months... after that, the cost will be much higher," the leader stressed.

He then told the Lebanese leaders, "Do not allow the Americans to deceive you and waste your time, and if you do not ratify your rights by September, then the cost will be highly expensive and much more difficult to obtain."

"The Resistance is the only force Lebanon has to obtain its right to its oil and gas [...] the extraction of [the natural resources] provides Lebanon with billions of dollars without the need for any foreign debt, and this is the only path for salvaging the country," he underscored.

"The demarcation of the border is crucial. It is the only way to save Lebanon and its people, and we will not wage psychological warfare through it," Sayyed Nasrallah said. "If the only option was not helping Lebanon, pushing it toward its collapse, and preventing it from extracting gas, then the threat of war - even going to war, is far better."