Lebanon delivers signed sea border deal to U.S. mediator

Lebanon signed and delivered its copy of a U.S.-mediated sea border deal with Israel on Thursday to a U.S. mediator, hoping to soon start exploring gas in its southern maritime blocs to bring economic stability to the crisis-ridden country.
The agreement to demarcate the maritime border comes after months of indirect talks mediated by Amos Hochstein, the U.S. envoy for energy affairs, and would mark a major breakthrough in relations between the two nations, which have formally been at war since Israel’s creation in 1948.
Lebanon and Israel both claim around 860 square kilometers of the Mediterranean Sea that are home to offshore gas fields. Lebanon hopes that demarcating maritime borders will pave the way for gas exploration to help lift it out of its crippling economic crisis, which has plunged three-quarters of its population into poverty. Israel hopes that the deal will reduce the risk of war with Lebanon’s Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.