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On October 27, Lebanon and Israel separately signed a historic United States-brokered maritime border deal which paves the way for the warring neighbors to conduct offshore energy exploration.
Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun signed a letter approving the deal in Beirut, while Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed another letter separately in Jerusalem.
Lower-level delegations from each country headed to the United Nations’ peacekeeping base at Naqoura along their contested land border. There, they separately submitted their signed copies of the deal to U.S. officials and their new coordinates for the maritime border to the U.N.
Top Lebanese negotiator Elias Bou Saab said the maritime deal marked the beginning of a “new era,” suggesting for it to be named after U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein.
From his side, PM Lapid said that the deal was a “tremendous achievement” that had produced Lebanon’s de facto recognition of Israel.
“It is not every day that an enemy country recognises the state of Israel, in a written agreement, in view of the international community,” Lapid told his cabinet in broadcast remarks.
Lapid’s remarks triggered a quick response from President Aoun, who stressed that the deal was purely “technical” and have “no political dimensions or impacts that contradict Lebanon’s foreign policy.”
Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah has approved the deal. The group threatened over the summer to attack Israel if it began extracting gas from the disputed Karish gas field before reaching an agreement.
In a televised speech, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that the deal is a “very big victory for Lebanon,” adding that the Lebanese government was careful not to take any steps “that even smelled of normalization” with Israel. The leader also announced the end of his armed group’s mobilization.
Under the deal, Israel received full rights to explore Karish. In turn, Lebanon received full rights in the Qana field but agreed to allow Israel a share of royalties through a side agreement with the French company TotalEnergies.
The deal carries hope for Lebanon, whose economy has been in a free fall for around three years now. It also ended any fears of a new military confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah over the gas-rich disputed maritime zone.
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