- Title: Lebanon and Israel agree to talks to end sea border dispute
- Date: 1st October 2020
- Summary: NAQOURA, LEBANON (FILE - MARCH 6, 2018) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ISRAELI CRANE ERECTING WALL, AS SEEN FROM LEBANESE SIDE OF BORDER VIEW OF BORDER FROM LEBANESE SIDE VIEW OF PARTIALLY BUILT CONCRETE WALL WITH TELECOMMUNICATIONS TOWER ON THE ISRAELI SIDE VARIOUS OF UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPER SITTING IN ARMED VEHICLE VARIOUS OF CONCRETE WALL AS SEEN FROM LEBANESE SIDE VARIOUS OF
- Embargoed: 15th October 2020 16:02
- Keywords: Borders Dispute Israel Lebanon Naqoura Sea Talks UNIFL
- Location: BEIRUT AND NAQOURA, LEBANON AND ROSH HANIKRA, ISRAEL
- City: BEIRUT AND NAQOURA, LEBANON AND ROSH HANIKRA, ISRAEL
- Country: Lebanon
- Topics: Middle East,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002CYASGG7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Lebanon and Israel have agreed to a framework for U.S.-mediated talks aimed at ending a long-running dispute along the border between the two nations that have fought several conflicts, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said on Thursday (October 1).
Still in a formal state of war, Lebanon and Israel have contested their land and maritime borders for decades, namely over an area in the sea on the edge of three Lebanese offshore energy blocks. Israel said the talks would cover the sea border.
Washington has mediated between the two sides.
"This is a framework agreement, not a final one," Berri told reporters, less than a month after the United States imposed sanctions on his top aide for corruption and financially enabling Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese group which Washington deems a terrorist organisation. The heavily armed Hezbollah and Israel, sworn enemies, last fought a war in 2006.
The announcement comes with Lebanon facing its worst crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war. The country's financial meltdown was compounded by a massive port explosion that wrecked a swathe of Beirut in August, killing nearly 200 people.
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz confirmed the two sides would hold U.S.-brokered talks on the maritime border, a major point of contention. He said negotiations were expected to start after Oct. 9.
The U.S. State Department said it "welcomes the decision by the governments of Israel and Lebanon to begin discussions on the maritime boundary", adding that the framework agreement for talks had taken three years of diplomacy to achieve. It follows deals signed last month, brokered by Washington, between Israel and two Gulf Arab states to normalise relations.
Berri, a Hezbollah ally and influential Shi'ite leader in charge of the border file, said talks would be held under the auspices of the United Nations at a U.N. base in Naqoura near the boundary with Israel, known as the Blue Line.
He told a news conference in Beirut that Washington would push for agreement as soon as possible.
Berri mentioned the land and maritime border at the news conference, while Israel and the United States only mentioned the maritime boundary. One reason previous efforts to launch talks floundered was the two sides disagreeing over which frontier to discuss, analysts say.
As well as the maritime border row, the two countries disagree over a border wall Israel started building in 2018. A U.N. peacekeeping force monitors the boundary since Israel's military withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000, ending a 22-year occupation
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