Demarcation deal with Lebanon to be signed on Thursday: Israeli Media

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Israeli media reported on Sunday the date for the signature of the maritime border demarcation agreement between Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories.

"We are going to have a deal - hopefully sign it - this Thursday," the US mediator Amos Hochstein said, according to the Israeli newspaper Maariv.

Israeli media quoted the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, as saying that "the special cabinet meeting will be held on Thursday morning to vote on the agreement with Lebanon."

Israeli Kan channel predicted that the signing of the agreement would take place "either Thursday or Friday."

In response to a question regarding “things that are expected to happen next week, which will certainly affect the elections,” Gilli Cohen, a political affairs commentator for the Israeli Kan channel, said, “It is true, that the agreement is expected to be signed either on Thursday or on Friday."

"It is not only that it cannot take place after the elections, but it must take place before the end of October, and this is the timetable, from here the estimate ranges between Thursday or Friday," Cohen said.

According to the Israeli Channel 12, Lapid "wants to speed up" the signing of the agreement with Lebanon, and at "the moment he has the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, he will go ahead and gather the government."

This comes after Lebanese President Michel Aoun announced, on October 13, Lebanon's agreement to adopt the final version of the maritime border demarcation agreement, stressing that it "responds to Lebanon's demands and preserves its rights in full," and that, "Lebanon did not concede not even a kilometer to 'Israel', as we obtained the entire Qana field, and refused to recognize the Israeli buoys' line."

In a televised speech, Aoun said, "This agreement responds to the Lebanese demands and preserves our rights in full," stressing that this achievement would not have been completed without the unified Lebanese stance.

"Lebanon did not pave the way to any kind of the rejected normalization," the Lebanese President said, hoping that the end of the negotiations would be "a promising beginning that lays the foundation for an economic revival that Lebanon needs through completing oil exploration." 

The Lebanese President stressed that "Lebanon did not concede not even a kilometer to 'Israel', as we obtained the entire Qana field, and refused to recognize the Israeli buoys' line."

A few days ago, Aoun called on TotalEnergies company to quickly begin exploring Block 9 in the Mediterranean sea, "to make up for the time lost due to indirect negotiations to demarcate the southern maritime borders."