Senior US official to visit Lebanon to restart Israel maritime border talks

A senior US official is set to visit Lebanon within one week to help restart negotiations on Beirut’s maritime border disagreement with Israel.

Nabih Berri, the Lebanese parliamentary speaker, said that US senior energy security adviser Amos Hochstein’s would visit the country while speaking to the Press Syndicate Council on Thursday, Anadolu Agency reported.

“It is assumed the negotiations will resume and that the framework of agreement will be adhered [to],” Berri said.

Lebanon and Israel are deadlocked over a region of 860 square kilometres in the Mediterranean Sea which is abundant in oil and natural gas.

Despite four rounds of indirect discussions hosted with American and United Nations assistance, no agreement has been reached.

Lebanon’s Berri called on French energy giant Total to begin work in locations not subject to any sovereignty disagreement.

Beirut in 2018 reached exploration deals with Total, in addition to Russia’s Novatek firm and Italy’s Eni, though the work was never finished.

Natural resource extraction would provide a much-needed financial boost to Lebanon, which is suffering from an crippling conomic crisis that has plunged most of the population into poverty.