Lebanon and Israel formalize historic maritime border agreement

Lebanon and Israel formalized this Thursday (2020) a historic agreement to demarcate their maritime borders during a ceremony in the Lebanese city of Naqoura, between the two countries and with the presence of the mediator of the United States in the negotiations, Amos Hochstein.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun sent a delegation to Nagoura at noon (local time) to take a copy of the agreement signed by him and deliver it the US mediator and the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, said the office of the presidency in a statement.

The delegation also took a letter signed by the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, defining the official coordinates of the new maritime border.

The UN coordinator confirmed in a statement that she received the letters with the border coordinates signed by the two countries at the organization’s peace mission headquarters in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Naqoura, in the afternoon, and that takes them will go to the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

According to the Israeli press, the two delegations were in the same room during the official ceremony at UNIFIL headquarters, but no photo of the meeting, which took place

The Israeli delegation made statements in Rosh Hanikra, on the border with Lebanon on the Mediterranean coast, upon returning from Naqoura, where it also confirmed the formalization of the pact.

There, the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Energy, Lior Schillat, said the agreement would bring “peace, stability and prosperity” to the region and thanked the mediator Hochstein and the US government for their role in the search for a “permanent solution” to the maritime dispute.

Lebanon and Israel, which have no diplomatic relations and are technically at war, began an indirect dialogue to delineate their maritime division in October 2020, resuming it this year after a long hiatus due to some divergences in the rules of the agreement.

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