Lebanon and Syria discuss maritime borders after the Beirut agreement with Israel

A Lebanese official said that President Michel Aoun and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad discussed, on Saturday, the demarcation of the common maritime borders between their two countries.

A dispute over their shared maritime border erupted last year after Syria granted a license to a Russian energy company to start offshore drilling in an area Lebanon says belongs to it.

There have been several gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean.

Aoun said earlier that the demarcation of the border would be the next after Lebanon agreed on its southern maritime border with Israel, after indirect US-brokered talks for years.

The Lebanese official told Reuters after talks on Saturday that Aoun had told Assad that Lebanon was keen to "start negotiations with Syria to demarcate its northern maritime borders."

The Syrian radio "Sham FM" stated that the details of the demarcation had not yet been discussed, and that Assad suggested direct talks through the foreign ministries of the two countries.

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