Israel announces that a historic agreement with Lebanon regarding the demarcation of the maritime borders is imminent

The chief of Israeli National Security Agency, Eyal Holata announced on Tuesday that a historic agreement is close to reaching a long-running dispute over the demarcation of the maritime border with Lebanon, after a US-drafted agreement met all the demands of Israel.

“All our demands have been met and the amendments we have requested have been accepted,” Holata said in an Arabic-language statement regarding the progress of negotiations for the demarcation of the maritime border line with Lebanon… We preserved Israel’s security interests…We’re on the way to a historic agreement”.

The chief Lebanese negotiator, Elias Bou Saab, told Reuters, that Lebanon had received the final draft of an agreement brokered by the United States to demarcate the border that meets all Lebanon’s requirements and could soon lead to a “historic agreement”.

“If all goes well, the efforts of Amos Hochstein could lead to a historic agreement,” Bou Saab added, minutes after receiving the final draft.

He was referring to the US mediator Hochstein, who has been engaged in shuttle diplomacy for months between the two countries, trying to reach an agreement to demarcate the common maritime border.

Despite the agreement’s limited scope, it would ease security and economic concerns in both countries, two adversaries with a long history of conflict.

The agreement would resolve a regional dispute in the eastern Mediterranean in an area where Lebanon aims to explore for natural gas, and near waters where Israel has found quantities suitable for commercial use.

The heavily armed Lebanese Hezbollah has threatened to use force against Israel if it embarks on gas exploration near the disputed area before Lebanon is allowed to do so in its maritime areas.

“We received minutes before the final draft,” Bou Saab said.

“Lebanon felt that it took into account all the requirements of Lebanon, and we believe that the other side should feel the same”.

Last week, Israel rejected last-minute changes made by Lebanon to the draft agreement, casting doubt on years of diplomatic efforts.

Officials from both countries have been in close contact through the US mediator during the past days in an attempt to resolve existing differences.

The Lebanese president said that the agreement doesn’t mean the existence of any partnership with Israel, a country that Lebanon doesn’t recognize and officially considers an enemy.

Last week, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said, “We’re avoiding a definite war in the region”.

For two years, the United States has been mediating between Lebanon and Israel to reach an agreement aimed at demarcating their maritime borders and removing obstacles to oil and gas exploration.

In practice, the two countries are at war, and Israel’s last war against Hezbollah, in 2006, lasted 34 days.

In early October, the two countries expressed their satisfaction with the draft text of the US mediator, Amos Hochstein, which was leaked to the press, stipulating that the Karish field would be completely subject to Israeli control in exchange for granting the Qana field to Lebanon, noting that a portion of it crosses the demarcation line separating the two countries’ waters.

London-based energy company Energy began on Sunday testing pipelines between Israel and the offshore Karish gas field in the eastern Mediterranean.

The company said Sunday that “after obtaining approval from the Israeli Ministry of Energy to start conducting certain tests, gas has begun to flow from shore” to the Karish floating production storage offloading platform.