BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon and Israel are moving closer to a deal in a more than decade-long maritime border dispute between the two neighbors, a U. S. and Lebanese envoy said Monday.
Lebanon and Israel have been officially at war since Israel’s creation in 1948 and the two countries claim some 860 kilometers (330 miles) of the Mediterranean Sea.
Amos Hochstein, Senior Advisor on Energy Security at the U. S. Department of StateA U. S. official, who mediated between the two neighbors, expressed optimism after his meetings Monday in Beirut with the Lebanese president, interim minister and parliament speaker.
The joint meeting between Hochstein and key leaders would possibly imply that a breakthrough would possibly be close and that Lebanese political leaders would such an agreement.
“The atmosphere is and the hole of disagreements in this domain is narrowing,” Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab told reporters after the meeting.
Hochstein arrived in Beirut on Sunday in Lebanon over Israel’s reaction to Beirut’s June proposal on the disputed border area.
After his last stop in Lebanon in June, Hochstein told U. S. -funded Alhurra TV that the Lebanese government had taken “a very important step forward” by presenting a more united approach and hoped there could be progress towards a deal.
“I am confident that we can make continued progress as we have done in recent weeks,” Hochstein said in brief remarks after the 90-minute assembly at the presidential palace.
He added that he “hopes to return to the region” and “be able to make the final arrangements. “
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri described the talks as “positive”.
Lebanon’s acting foreign minister, Abdallah Bouhabib, told local Al-Jadeed television that important progress had been made. “We’re trying to put things in position so we can look for fuel and they (the Israelis) too,” he said.
Lebanon urgently needs a deal as it hopes to exploit offshore fuel reserves in a bid to mitigate what has the worst economic crisis in its fashionable history.
On Sunday, the Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah launched drones from Israeli ships at a disputed fuel depot in the Mediterranean Sea, underscoring tension amid U. S. -brokered talks over the Israeli-Lebanon maritime border.
Lebanon claims that the Karish fuel box is disputed territory in ongoing maritime border negotiations, while Israel claims it is located in its identified economic waters around the world.
Earlier this month, the Israeli army shot down 3 unarmed Hezbollah drones flying over Karish’s fuel box in the Mediterranean Sea. Mikati then criticized Hezbollah and said the move could pose a danger to the country.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in an interview last week, said the militant organization could locate and attack Karish and any other Israeli fuel field.
Later on Monday, Hochstein told local television station LBC, when asked about Hezbollah’s recent activities, that the only and most productive way “to succeed in resolving this long-standing dispute is through the negotiating table and diplomacy. “
He warned that otherwise “there is a risk of causing miscalculated damage to those negotiations and ending them. “
Israel and Hezbollah are bitter enemies who fought a month-long war in the summer of 2006. Israel considers the Iranian-backed organization its maximum immediate threat and estimates it possesses some 150,000 Israeli rockets and missiles.