Lebanon Expects Israel's Final Decision on Maritime Border by End of Month - Source

BEIRUT (Sputnik) - Lebanon has submitted its latest proposals to a US State Department mediator in negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and expects a final Israeli decision on the demarcation of the maritime border by the end of September, Lebanese sources told Sputnik on Monday.

After numerous meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Lebanon has submitted a proposal to US State Department Adviser Amos Hochstein, a mediator between Israel and Lebanon, in negotiations over the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel, Lebanese sources informed Sputnik.

"Deputy Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Elias Bou Saab held a series of meetings in New York with Hochstein and the US delegation accompanying him, during which they discussed the details of the Lebanese response in addition to the Kana field, including the southern part of this field south of the 23rd line. Bou Saab confirmed after the meeting that a written proposal, which Hochstein will send after receiving a final response from the Israelis, is expected to arrive at Baabda [the presidential palace in Lebanon] by the end of this week," the sources said.

On June 8, Israel called on Lebanon to speed up negotiations on maritime border demarcation and stressed that the Karish gas field is its strategic asset located on the Israeli territory, adding that it had no intention to extract gas in the disputed territory.

Israel and Lebanon have been trying to resolve an overlap between the two rival nations' territorial waters situated over large oil and gas deposits beneath the Mediterranean seabed since 1996. The US-mediated negotiations began in 2020. Lebanon initially laid claims to 860 square kilometers (332 square miles) of waters but then modified the bid to include an extra 1,430 square kilometers encompassing part of the Karish gas field, claimed in its entirety by Israel. Israel refused to discuss those new terms. The maritime border between the two neighbors, which have been formally at war since 1948, has not yet been established.