Negotiators from Lebanon and Israel are optimistic that the received final draft of a U.S.-mediated maritime border deal that satisfies all of their requirements and could imminently lead to a “historic deal,”
Both Lebanon’s lead negotiator Bou Saab, and Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata who headed the Israeli negotiating team, agree on the historic potential of the agreement., while expressing satisfaction in the provisions of the document.
The deal would resolve a territorial dispute in the eastern tip of the Mediterranean sea in an area where Lebanon aims to explore for natural gas, and near waters where Israel has already found commercially viable quantities of hydrocarbons.
Officials from both countries were in close contact via the U.S. mediator over the past few days in an effort to resolve outstanding differences.
