President Michel Aoun gives Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab the "Cedars National Medal" for his efforts in maritime border negotiations. (Credits: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT — A Lebanese visit to Syria to discuss the disputed maritime border, which was scheduled for Wednesday over the weekend, was canceled by Syria on Monday afternoon, a source from the Presidential Palace in Baabda told L'Orient Today.
On Saturday, President Michel Aoun assigned Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab to head a delegation to discuss delimiting maritime borders with Syria and that was supposed to travel to Damascus next week to do so.
On Monday morning, Aoun appointed the full delegation for the visit to Syria which include Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib and General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim.
The source at Baabda told L'Orient Today on Monday afternoon that the reason the visit got canceled is because of "prior engagements from the Syrian side."
A diplomatic source told Reuters that the reason for the cancellation of the visit is that it is "not the right time" for a visit.
Bou Saab was the top Lebanese mediator in the indirect talks on the delineation of the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel — talks that resulted in an agreement two weeks ago. He was granted a national award Saturday for his mediation efforts.
Earlier Saturday, Aoun and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad discussed delineating their countries' shared maritime border, a Lebanese official said to Reuters.
A dispute over their shared sea boundary emerged last year after Syria granted a license to a Russian energy company to begin maritime exploration in an area Lebanon claimed. Several gas discoveries have been made in the eastern Mediterranean.
Aoun earlier said demarcating the border would be next after Lebanon agreed to its southern maritime boundary with longtime foe Israel following years of indirect US-mediated talks.
Aoun and Assad discussed delineation last year.