By Oyintari Ben
According to negotiators from the two nations, Lebanon and Israel have resolved their long-running maritime border dispute in the gas-rich Mediterranean Sea with a “historic” agreement.
After presenting President Michel Aoun with the final form of the contract negotiated by the United States on Wednesday, Lebanon’s deputy speaker Elias Bou Saab declared that the two parties had come to an amicable agreement.
According to Bou Saab, Lebanon has obtained all of its rights, and all of its comments have been taken into consideration.
The Presidency of Lebanon expressed the desire for “the agreement on the demarcation to be published as soon as feasible.” A deal, according to Aoun, would not imply a “relationship” with Israel. In a legal sense, the two nations are at war.
Bou Saab’s comments were mirrored by Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata, who led the Israeli negotiating team.
“All of our requests were granted, and the improvements we requested were fixed. In a statement, he said, “We safeguarded Israel’s security interests and are moving toward a historic accord.
In the meantime, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid praised “this historic accomplishment that will bolster Israel’s security.”
The agreement has not yet had a signing date determined.
A small agreement could allay economic and security worries between the two nations.
The agreement would settle a territorial issue in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, close to waters where Israel has already discovered economically viable quantities of hydrocarbons and where Lebanon intends to conduct natural gas exploration.
Walid Fayyad, the minister of energy for Lebanon, stated that the country’s officials had “just completed the final check to ensure that this deal is satisfactory for the Lebanese government.”
According to Fayyad, “We look forward to finalizing this with the success and the potential it will present for Lebanon.”
