Lazar Berman is the diplomatic reporter for The Times of Israel
U. S. President Joe Biden drafted a letter to Prime Minister Yair Lapid in which he assures the United States’ commitment to the full implementation of the new maritime boundary agreement with Lebanon and Israel’s security and economic rights contained in the agreement, a senior U. S. official said late Saturday.
The text of the letter reached between Israel and the United States on Friday and Biden is expected to signal early next week, the official said.
In the letter, Biden underscores the U. S. commitment to supporting Israel’s ability to protect itself by adding its fuel infrastructure and ships in the Mediterranean.
The United States also recognizes the line of buoys stretching five kilometers (3. 1 miles) out to sea from Rosh Hanikra as the prestige quo line, and opposes any attempt to replace Israel’s agreement line.
Washington commits in the letter to Israel’s partial economic rights over the Qana fuel field, which the deal says is owned by Lebanon, and emphasizes that it will prevent Hezbollah from profiting from it.
In addition, Biden pledges to support Israel in opposition to anyone who violates the maritime agreement.
The US president praised Lapid’s role in achieving the deal, calling it “heroic”.
The final text of the letter will be released, according to an Israeli official.
The letter comes days after Israel approved the U. S. -brokered maritime deal with Lebanon, which Lapid praised as the popularity of the State of Israel by an enemy state, even though Beirut rejected his claim.
The cabinet’s vote on the deal on Thursday came hours before the two sides signed the agreement at a rite at a United Nations base in Lebanon, and shortly after Lebanese President Michel Aoun signed a letter confirming Beirut’s acceptance of the deal.
Lapid signed the agreement some time after the cabinet vote.
Israel and Lebanon are technically still at war and the deal touches the land border. However, the deal is perceived as Israel’s tacit popularity across Lebanon, with the consent of the hardline terror group Hezbollah.
After the signing of the deal on Thursday, Hezbollah said it would end its special mobilization against Israel, after threatening to strike if Jerusalem began extracting herbal fuel at the Karish drilling site before the deal was finalized. Gas extraction began in Karish on Wednesday.
The deal came here as Lebanon hopes to emerge from what the World Bank calls one of the worst economic crises in world history, and as Lapid sought to secure a major achievement, days before general elections on Nov. 1.
The agreement ends a long-standing dispute over some 860 kilometers (330 miles) of the Mediterranean Sea, which covers the fuel fields of Karish in Israel and Qana in Lebanon.
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