\n
BEIRUT , Aug 1 (AP) \u2014 Lebanon and Israel are getting closer to reaching a deal in a more than a decade-old maritime border dispute between the two neighbors, a U.S. envoy and Lebanese officials said Monday.<\/p>\n
Lebanon and Israel have been officially at war since Israel\u2019s creation in 1948 and both countries claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the U.S. State Department who has been mediating between the two neighbors, expressed optimism after his meetings Monday in Beirut with Lebanon\u2019s president, caretaker prime minister and parliament speaker.<\/p>\n
The joint meeting between Hochstein and the top leaders may indicate that a breakthrough could be near and that Lebanon\u2019s political leadership backs such a deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe atmosphere is positive and the gap of disagreements in this field is narrowing,\u201d Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab told reporters after the meeting.<\/p>\n
Hochstein arrived in Beirut on Sunday to inform Lebanon of Israel\u2019s response to Beirut\u2019s June proposal over the disputed sea border area.<\/p>\n
Following his last visit to Lebanon in June, Hochstein told the U.S.-funded Alhurra television that the Lebanese government took \u201ca very strong step forward\u201d by presenting a more united approach, and anticipated that there could be progress to reach a settlement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remain optimistic that we can make continuous progress as we have over the last several weeks,\u201d Hochstein said in brief comments after the 90-minute meeting at the presidential palace.<\/p>\n
He added that he looks \u201cforward to coming back to the region\u201d and \u201cbeing able to make the final arrangements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri described the talks as \u201cpositive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib told the local Al-Jadeed TV that major progress has been made. \u201cWe are trying to set things up so that we can search for gas and they (Israelis) too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lebanon is in bad need of an agreement as it hopes to exploit offshore gas reserves to try and alleviate what has become the worst economic crisis in its modern history.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Lebanese militant Hezbollah group aired drone footage of Israeli ships in a disputed gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, highlighting the tension at the center of U.S.-mediated Israel-Lebanon maritime border talks.<\/p>\n
Lebanon claims the Karish gas field is disputed territory under ongoing maritime border negotiations, whereas Israel says it lies within its internationally recognized economic waters.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military earlier this month shot down three Hezbollah unarmed drones flying over Karish gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. Mikati at the time criticized Hezbollah, saying the move could pose risks to the country.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an interview last week said that the militant group can locate and strike Karish and any other Israeli gas field.<\/p>\n
\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIRUT , Aug 1 (AP) \u2014 Lebanon and Israel are getting closer to reaching a deal in a more than a decade-old maritime border dispute between the two neighbors, a U.S. envoy and Lebanese officials said Monday. Lebanon and Israel have been officially at war since Israel\u2019s creation in 1948 and both countries claim some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-196905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}