President Michel Aoun (R) meets Wednesday with US envoy Amos Hochstein (C). (Credit: Lebanese presidency)
BEIRUT — President Michel Aoun on Wednesday told Amos Hochstein, a visiting US envoy mediating indirect talks on Lebanon’s maritime border with occupied Palestine, that Lebanon is ready to “study the points” of his proposal.
Here’s what we know:
• A statement issued by the president’s office said that Hochstein briefed Aoun on his recent contacts with Israeli officials regarding the maritime border talks, adding that the US envoy presented proposals for study.
• Aoun told Hochstein that Lebanon was ready to “study the points [Hochstein] raised based on the desire to find solutions to this file,” the statement added.
• US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea attended the Aoun-Hochstein meeting at the Baabda Presidential Palace, which gathered a number of Lebanese officials, including Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib and Energy Minister Walid Fayyad.
• The participants also discussed Hochstein’s efforts to facilitate the transit of Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity to Lebanon, via Syria, the statement said. The US-backed proposal, which would call for World Bank funding, was first rolled out in August 2021.
• Hochstein, the US State Department’s senior advisor on energy security, arrived in Beirut on Tuesday. He met earlier Wednesday with Lebanese Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun and Premier Najib Mikati. He is also set to meet with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
• Lebanon and Israel engaged in a number of rounds of indirect talks on disputed maritime territory, potentially rich in petroleum resources, between October 2020 and May 2021, when the negotiations were halted.