UPDATE - Lebanese president signs maritime border demarcation deal

UPDATES WITH ISRAELI PREMIER'S REMARKS, OTHER EDITS

By Wassim Seif El Din

BEIRUT (AA) - Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Thursday signed a maritime border demarcation deal with Israel as mediated by the United States.

Deputy Speaker and chief Lebanese negotiator Elias Bou Saab told a press conference that Aoun signed a letter relating to the demarcation of Lebanon's southern maritime boundary.

He added that a Lebanese delegation will hand US mediator Amos Hochstein the letter signed by Aoun at UN headquarters in southern Lebanon.

He also said another letter will be sent to the UN by the Foreign Ministry.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, for his part, hailed the deal as a “political achievement” for his country.

"The maritime deal is a political achievement for Israel as we don't see an enemy state like Lebanon recognizing Israel in a written agreement every day," he said on his official Twitter account.

He said the deal strengthens Tel Aviv's "security and freedom to take action against Hezbollah."

The Israeli government also ratified the deal, according to an official statement by the Prime Minister's Office.

On Oct. 13, Aoun and Lapid announced they were accepting the US-mediated proposal for the maritime border demarcation.

Israel and Lebanon have been locked in a dispute over a maritime area of 860 square kilometers (332 square miles) rich in gas and oil, according to maps sent by both countries to the UN in 2011.

Negotiations over the territory in the Mediterranean Sea, which contain part of the Karish gas field and Qana, a prospective gas field, have been ongoing since 2020.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara