According to the White House, the US administration is attempting to limit the conflict between Israel and Lebanon over the definition of maritime borders. According to White House officials, Washington is reviving the spirit of dialogue for Lebanese and Israeli border negotiators.
According to White House officials, settling the border conflict between Lebanon and Israel is a priority for President Joe Biden’s administration, and an agreement on the delineation of the boundary between Israel and Lebanon is feasible.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the focus of the US-led discussions on the maritime boundary has switched to compensation and the amount of gas available to each party.
The two nations have not yet achieved a definitive agreement, but there is considered to be enough convergence between the stances to begin work on an agreement, which might result in either partitioning the gas fields that may meet on the marine border line or getting financial compensation.
Negotiations between the two parties, which began a year ago with American mediation, were halted last May due to disagreements over the area of the disputed region, despite the fact that the demarcation of the maritime borders is critical to Lebanon because it would facilitate the exploration of oil resources within its territorial waters.
Amos Hochstein, the top US consultant on global energy security, came in Beirut on Tuesday as part of his new assignment as a mediator in the indirect talks between Lebanon and Israel.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Hochstein will travel to France in the coming weeks to meet with the officials of Total Energies, which has exploration rights in Lebanon’s territorial seas.
Hochstein met with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid last month while flying between Lebanon and Israel.
Tensions between the two sides rose in June when Israel sent in a production and storage vessel owned by the London-based Energean business to work on collecting gas from the Karesh field, a portion of which Beirut deems to be in disputed territory. The Israeli move was met with threats from Hezbollah at the time.
On July 2, Israel said that it had intercepted three Hezbollah drones on their way to the Mediterranean gas fields.
The White House says a deal on boundary delineation between Israel and Lebanon is “possible”.
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