Lebanon Agrees to Discuss Maritime Border with Israel

A top Lebanese official has publicly confirmed that the country will hold maritime border talks with Israel under the auspices of the United Nations. “This is a framework agreement, not a final one,” Nabih Berri, speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, told reporters in Beirut on Thursday. Earlier this week, Israeli officials confirmed that preparatory talks led by Assistant US Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Schenker had borne fruit, and that Israel and Lebanon would sit down to discuss maritime boundaries in an age of offshore gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean. Berri said that the negotiations, which would take place at an unspecified time in Nakoura, a Lebanese coastal town near Israel that is used by UN peacekeeping troops as a headquarters, would also cover land borders although Israel and Washington have spoken only of sea boundaries. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed Berri’s confirmation by saying the talks will “have the potential to yield greater stability, security, and prosperity for Lebanese and Israeli citizens alike.”