Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at the first parliamentary session dedicated to the presidential election in Beirut on Sept. 29, 2022. (Credit: Ibrahim Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said regarding the recent news about Israel allegedly rejecting Lebanon's proposal regarding the Lebanese-Israeli maritime border negotiations that "Lebanon does not deal with media leaks, but with facts which should be communicated by the American delegation which we only talk to."
In an interview with al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper published Friday morning, Berri also said that the Lebanese proposals on the maritime border deal were "simple and discussed with the American delegation before sending it officially."
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid "was updated on the details of the substantial changes Lebanon is seeking to make in the agreement and instructed the negotiating team to reject them," an Israeli official said.
Berri also described what is being discussed in the media about Israel rejecting Lebanon's proposal as "an internal electoral Israeli scuffle which does not concern us" and that the Lebanese are waiting for the Israeli response through the American mediator in the negotiations Amos Hochstein "and we will act accordingly."
The indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel resumed in 2020 aiming to seal a deal that would pave the way for offshore energy exploration and defuse a potential source of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The talks were then suspended following demands expressed by the Lebanese negotiators. They started again, under a direct mediation of Hochstein who went back and forth between Beirut and Tel Aviv, following a flare of tensions due to the arrival of a gas exploration platform in the Karish field on June 5, 2022.
Last week, Hochstein submitted to the Lebanese and Israeli officials his resolution proposal, which grants the Qana gas field to Lebanon. Lebanese officials then met to prepare their answer to the proposal.