US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — Lead negotiator in the Lebanese-Israeli maritime border negotiations, Amos Hochstein, landed in Beirut Wednesday night, according to the state-run National News Agency.
Hochstein brings with him the final draft of a “historic agreement between two enemy countries,” which will be signed Thursday, the US State Department said in a statement.
During a meeting at Baabda Palace with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, Hochstein will have Aoun sign the first annex of the final version of the agreement. This document will also be signed by the US mediator.
A similar procedure will take place on the Israeli side.
Hochstein will then travel to Naqoura, where the second annex will be signed by both sides at the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Delegations representing each of the two countries will be seated in separate rooms and each will sign the annex, before handing it over to the US envoy, who will transfer it to the UN.
Hochstein will then travel to Israel, where he will meet with Prime Minister Yair Lapid and “thank him and his team for their persistent and principled diplomacy to reach a resolution on this critical file,” the State Department statement concluded.
Tension rose along the southern border when Israel deployed a floating production ship to the Karish gas field on June 5. The incident prompted resumed indirect maritime border negotiations after talks had been suspended for months.
The resolution agreement was eventually finalized earlier in October.