Aoun Meets Lebanese Delegation, Kubis on Eve of Maritime Talks

W460

President Michel Aoun held separate talks at Baabda Palace on Tuesday with the Lebanese team tasked with holding indirect maritime talks with Israel, and with the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis on the eve of the talks scheduled on Wednesday.

Aoun met with the four-member Lebanese delegation headed by air force Brig. Gen. Bassam Yassin. The three other members are navy Col. Mazen Basbous, Lebanese oil official Wissam Chbat and border expert Najib Massihi.

Caretaker Defense Minister Zeina Akar, and Army chief Joseph Aoun attended the meeting.

"The talks are technical. A fair solution must be reached to protect the sovereign rights of Lebanese," stressed Aoun.

Lebanon and Israel are set to begin US-brokered negotiations Thursday on their disputed maritime border.

Earlier, Aoun met with the UN Special Coordinator.

Washington has hailed the Lebanon-Israel agreement as "historic" between the two sides technically still at war.

The issue of the sea frontier is particularly sensitive, as Lebanon wants to drill for hydrocarbons in a part of the Mediterranean disputed by Israel.

The United States will act as a facilitator during the talks to be held at the UN peacekeeping headquarters in the southern Lebanon border town of Naqoura.

“The US representatives and the UN special coordinator for Lebanon are prepared to provide meeting minutes together that they will sign and present to Israel and Lebanon to sign at the end of each meeting," Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had said.

SourceNaharnet
Comments 3
Missing phillipo 13 October 2020, 15:48

Surely, the moment Israeli and Lebanese officials sign the same document, even if it is only a minutes of a meeting, this proves that the government of the Republic of Lebanon recognises the existance of the State of Israel.

Missing kazan 13 October 2020, 22:16

don't be naive, under pressure politicians may sign papers, but the reality is what the people think, feel, and wish......and you know it....

Thumb lebanon_first 13 October 2020, 17:44

What is the importance of such a recognition?? It doesnt negate the fact that israel exported their pals to squat our country

We all know that Israel also is the raison d'etre of the terrorist hezbollah militia, which is causing way more harm to Lebanon than to Israel.