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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel s diplomatic reporter
View of the Israeli Leviathan gas field gas processing rig as it seen from Dor Habonim Beach Nature Reserve, on January 1, 2020. (Flash90)
Israeli and Lebanese negotiators engaged in US-mediated indirect talks over their disputed maritime for six hours on Tuesday.
The talks were the first since discussions were broken off in October 2020.
US diplomat John Desrocher, who serves as the American mediator, asked that both parties negotiate based on their original proposals filed to the United Nations in 2011, according to Lebanese daily L’Orient Today.
Lebanon has since submitted much more aggressive maritime claims. In the lead up to this round of talks, the Lebanese delegation a mix of army officers and experts offered a new map that pushes for an additional 1,430 square kilometers (550 square miles) for Lebanon.
Reports say that President Joe Biden joined unexpectedly on Friday a meeting at the White House between Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen and US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Israel-Lebanon maritime borders talks set to restart
The delegations will meet at the UNIFIL base in Nakura, on Lebanese territory by the border, in the presence of US mediator John Droescher.
The negotiations between Israel and Lebanon over their disputed maritime border are set to resume. The Israeli delegation to the talks will meet the Lebanese delegation at the UNIFIL base in Nakura, on Lebanese territory by the border. The meeting will be attended by the US mediator John Droescher.
Asw reported by Globes last week, the Americans have initiated the renewal of negotiations following a direct appeal to Lebanon s President Michel Aoun, who agreed to the talks and dismissed attempts by ministers in the transition government to approve an order extending Lebanese sovereignty over an even large area of economic waters than are being disputed.
U.S. and Israel seek to fence off Iran deal dispute from other issues
Jake Sullivan. Photo: Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty
Israel and the U.S. want to fence their disagreements over the 2015 nuclear deal off from cooperation on other Iran-related issues, a senior Israeli official told me following talks on Tuesday in Washington between White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben Shabbat.
Why it matters: The Israelis see a U.S. return to the deal as a matter of when and not if, Israeli officials say. So while Ben Shabbat arrived in Washington with a prepared message on Iran stating Israel s objections to the deal and stressing Israel s freedom of operation against Iran he was keen to move the discussion onto other issues.