BEIRUT: Lebanon and Israel are expected to resume US-mediated talks on a dispute about their Mediterranean Sea border next week, two Lebanese official sources said on Thursday.
Negotiations between old foes Lebanon and Israel were launched in October to try to resolve the dispute, which has held up hydrocarbon exploration in the potentially gas-rich area, yet the talks have since stalled.
One Lebanese official who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue told Reuters that the US side had informed Lebanon that talks would resume on Monday.
The second Lebanese official said the resumption would coincide with a visit by US mediator John Desrocher, who is due in Lebanon on an unspecified day next week. US embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.
The longtime foes held several rounds of talks in October, a culmination of three years of diplomacy by the United States, hosted by the United Nations at a peacekeeper base in southern Lebanon.
But gaps between the two sides remained large after each presented contrasting maps outlining proposed borders that actually increased the size of the disputed area.
Since the talks stalled, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister and ministers of defense and public works approved a draft decree which would expand Lebanon’s claim, adding around 1,400 square km to its exclusive economic zone.
The draft decree has yet to be approved.
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz’s office said Israel was considering a renewal of talks but “based on the known territory which is in dispute.”
Israel already pumps gas from huge offshore fields, while Lebanon has yet to find commercial gas reserves in its own waters.
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Lebanon, Israel expected to resume talks on maritime border next week
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Lebanon, Israel expected to resume talks on maritime border next week
- Negotiations between the old foes were launched in October to try to resolve the dispute
- But gaps between the two sides remained large after each presented contrasting maps outlining proposed borders
Syrian army declares a closed military zone east of Aleppo as tensions rise with Kurds
ALEPPO, Syria: The Syrian army on Tuesday declared an area east of the northern city of Aleppo a “closed military zone,” potentially signaling another escalation between government forces and fighters with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Several days of clashes in the city of Aleppo last week that displaced tens of thousands of people came to an end over the weekend with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from the contested neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud.
Since then, Syrian officials have accused the SDF of building up its forces near the towns of Maskana and Deir Hafer, about 60 km (37 mi) east of Aleppo city, something the SDF denied.
State news agency SANA reported that the army had declared the area a closed military zone because of “continued mobilization” by the SDF “and because it serves as a launching point for Iranian suicide drones that have targeted the city of Aleppo.”
On Saturday afternoon, an explosive drone hit the Aleppo governorate building shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference on the developments in the city. The SDF denied being behind the attack.
The army statement Tuesday said armed groups should withdraw to the area east of the Euphrates River.
The tensions come amid an impasse in political negotiations between the central state and the SDF.
The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa signed a deal in March with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkiye-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF has for years been the main US partner in Syria in fighting against the Daesh group, but Turkiye considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkiye. A peace process is now underway.
Despite the long-running US support for the SDF, the Trump administration in the US has also developed close ties with Al-Sharaa’s government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.
Shams TV, a station based in Irbil, the seat of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, had been set to air an interview with Al-Sharaa on Monday but later announced it had been postponed for “technical” reasons without giving a new date for airing it.
Several days of clashes in the city of Aleppo last week that displaced tens of thousands of people came to an end over the weekend with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from the contested neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud.
Since then, Syrian officials have accused the SDF of building up its forces near the towns of Maskana and Deir Hafer, about 60 km (37 mi) east of Aleppo city, something the SDF denied.
State news agency SANA reported that the army had declared the area a closed military zone because of “continued mobilization” by the SDF “and because it serves as a launching point for Iranian suicide drones that have targeted the city of Aleppo.”
On Saturday afternoon, an explosive drone hit the Aleppo governorate building shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference on the developments in the city. The SDF denied being behind the attack.
The army statement Tuesday said armed groups should withdraw to the area east of the Euphrates River.
The tensions come amid an impasse in political negotiations between the central state and the SDF.
The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa signed a deal in March with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkiye-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF has for years been the main US partner in Syria in fighting against the Daesh group, but Turkiye considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkiye. A peace process is now underway.
Despite the long-running US support for the SDF, the Trump administration in the US has also developed close ties with Al-Sharaa’s government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.
Shams TV, a station based in Irbil, the seat of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, had been set to air an interview with Al-Sharaa on Monday but later announced it had been postponed for “technical” reasons without giving a new date for airing it.
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