Mediterranean: Israel and Lebanon sign an agreement on their maritime border

Lebanese President Michel Aoun (right) posing with US mediator Amos Hochstein at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the Lebanese capital Beirut, on October 27, 2022 © AFP

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The Israeli government officially approved on Thursday an agreement delimiting its maritime border with Lebanon.

At stake: the exploitation or exploration of large gas deposits in the Mediterranean Sea, located on the border between the two countries.

For the Israelis, thanks to this agreement, Lebanon “finally recognizes Israel”.

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The Israelis see this agreement as a form of “diplomatic normalization” of their relations with their northern neighbor, reports our correspondent in Jerusalem,

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The language elements are chosen carefully.

Israeli experts, the Israeli press, all refer to "a historic agreement".

And this goes all the way to the top of the state, with these statements by the Prime Minister: "This is a political achievement, it is not every day that an enemy country recognizes Israel in a written agreement and this, in front of the entire international community”, rejoiced Yaïr Lapid in the morning. 

Not sure that the Lebanese have the same interpretation of this agreement.

Beirut also prefers to speak of a “purely technical agreement”, when the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, the influential Shiite party, evokes a simple “arrangement”, with economic motivation. 

Two different approaches.

Understand: the two enemy countries remain at war.

Lebanon insisted that its delegation have no official contact with that of the Jewish state, during the ceremony which will seal this agreement this Thursday afternoon.

It will be held in Naquoura, on the border between the two countries, in two separate rooms, under UN supervision, and in the presence of the Americans who oversaw the discussions on the agreement.

The Lebanese and Israeli maritime territories and the area at the heart of the dispute.

© FMM Graphic Studio

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