Berri Unveils Israeli Proposal to Discuss Territorial Issue with Lebanon
Speaker Nabih Berri said that the United States notified Lebanon of Israel's readiness to discuss a controversial issue of defining the land and sea borders between the two countries, Berri told Russian Sputnik news agency on Wednesday.
Berri said a “message was received from the United States after a meeting with Israeli (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu in Israel that they are ready for a final solution on land and at sea.”
The Speaker added to Sputnik that Lebanon is ready for talks with Israel to define borders and is waiting for a response from the United States. “Negotiations should continue in Naqoura under the UN auspices,” he noted.
In February, Lebanon signed its first contract to drill for oil and gas off its coast with a consortium comprising energy giants Total, ENI and Novatek, including in a block disputed by Israel.
Israel says one of two blocks in the eastern Mediterranean where Lebanon wants to drill for oil belongs to it, and denounced any exploration by Beirut as "provocative".
The acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, David Satterfield, has shuttled between the countries in recent months as a mediator.
On Tuesday, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that “suggestion of new ideas proposed through the US back-channel talks to mediate a maritime dispute between Israel and Lebanon have complicated operations for gas and oil exploration.”
He added that some “new ideas are on the table,” but declined to elaborate further.
On Monday, Lebanon’s senior officials met at the Presidential Palace where talks focused on the demarcation of Lebanon’s border and the dispute with Israel.
Source: Naharnet
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