BEIRUT —
Lebanon said Saturday it received a
letter from US envoy Amos Hochstein containing an “offer” on a maritime border
deal with Israel that could settle competing claims over offshore gas fields.
اضافة اعلان
Prime Minister Najib Mikati met with US ambassador
to Lebanon Dorothy Shea “who delivered a written offer from the US mediator”,
the premier’s office said, without elaborating.
President
Michel Aoun also met with Shea “who handed
him a writ-ten letter ... containing proposals regarding the demarcation of the
southern maritime border,” Aoun’s office said.
Aoun contacted Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih
Berri, who also received the draft proposal, to discuss how to deliver
Lebanon’s re-sponse “as quickly as possible”, his office added.
Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah, who had repeatedly
threatened Isra-el with attacks if it proceeds with extraction in disputed
areas before a deal is reached, welcomed Saturday’s developments as “a very
im-portant step.”
“The importance of what happened is that there is
now a written text,” he said in a televised speech.
“The coming days
will be crucial,” Nasrallah added, as Lebanese au-thorities prepare their
response to an offer that could “open up wide horizons for the Lebanese
people.”
Lebanon and Israel have no diplomatic relations and
their land border is patrolled by the UN.
They reopened
negotiations on their maritime border in 2020, but the process was stalled by
Lebanon’s demand that the map used by the UN in the talks be modified.
The US-mediated negotiations resumed in early June
after Israel moved a production vessel near the Karish offshore field, which is
partly claimed by Lebanon.
Saturday’s announcement followed a flurry of
statements by Lebanese officials, including Aoun and Mikati, expressing
optimism that a deal with Israel was close.
“The Lebanese response will be made as soon as
possible, in prepara-tion for the next step,” an official at the president’s
office told AFP on Saturday on condition of anonymity.
Last month, Aoun told UN special coordinator for
Lebanon Joanna Wronecka that “negotiations to demarcate the southern maritime
bor-der are in their final stages”.
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