Lebanon makes new maritime border offer

Lebanon made a new offer to a visiting US mediator over a maritime border deal with Israel, holding back on demands for territory where Israel plans to imminently extract gas, an official said. Beirut's proposal however included a claim for all of a separate field that it had initially only sought part of, the official close to the negotiations said. The new offer was made during meetings between Lebanon's top leaders and US envoy Amos Hochstein, who landed in Beirut on Monday to relaunch indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel after a year-long pause. Lebanese authorities last week had requested Hochstein visit after a gas production vessel arrived in Israel to launch extraction operations in the Karish offshore field, drawing condemnation from Lebanon, which had laid claim to parts of it.

— AFP