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Reuters AZIZ TAHER
An Israeli report mentioned that Washington is pushing for direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon on maritime borders to reach an agreement on the gas exploration issue “even before the next US elections.”
According to the report published by the Israeli website Walla, on Friday, the US Under Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs, David Schenker, is making great efforts and marathon moves between Beirut and Tel Aviv, in order to carry out “Direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon for the first time in 30 years”. Even before the next American election.
The report stated that “in recent weeks, following the catastrophic explosion in the port of Beirut, the economic crisis in Lebanon and internal criticism of Hezbollah, the US administration decided to resume efforts to start negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.” .
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He said Schenker visited Israel this week and met with Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is in charge of the Mediterranean gas issue on behalf of the Israeli government, and also met with Chancellor Gabi Ashkenazi, whose office is a partner in communications.
The report mentioned that Schenker had previously met with Steinitz and Ashkenazi during a visit to Israel a few weeks ago, after which he went to Beirut, “where he met with senior members of the transitional government to try to come up with a formula that allow negotiations with Israel. “
During his recent visit to Israel, Schenker briefed Steinitz and Ashkenazi on his talks in Lebanon and presented them with an updated draft of the principles document to start negotiations.
According to the report, senior Israeli officials indicated that the impression after the visit is that “there is flexibility on the part of the Lebanese,” and one of the officials said: “There has been progress. We see the desire of the Lebanese side to move forward. , and we see that they understand that the time has come to solve the problem. ” We are ready to start serious negotiations, and we hope that will happen before the end of 2020. “
According to this Israeli official, one of the points of disagreement that still needs to be resolved is the “status of the mediators”, since the report indicated that Lebanon had previously requested a joint mediation between the United States and the United Nations together, while Israel, to Instead, he just wants American mediation.
Since the last decade, there has been a dispute between Israel and Lebanon over the demarcation of the maritime borders between them, especially in the area known as “Block 9”, where estimates indicate the possibility of discovering natural gas reserves there.
Source: Israeli media
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