President Joe Biden has drafted a letter guarantying the United States' commitment to Israel's economic and security rights contained in the new agreement demarcating the maritime border with Lebanon, according to a top US official.
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He said on Saturday that in the document, Biden praises Lapid for bringing about the "historic" agreement and stressed US commitment to Israel's ability to defend itself. It also supports Israel's partial economic rights to the Qana gas field and reiterates that it will prevent the Hezbollah terror group from gaining revenue from it. In addition, it recognizes the status quo line, which is the five-kilometer buoy line stretching from into the sea from Rosh Hanikra.
Nevertheless, despite the political backing, the drafts seems to fall short of committing to concrete measures should the maritime deal be breached.
The official also explained that Biden's letter was not published, "because contrary to political agreements, it is not customary to disclose such documents."
The Israel-Lebanon agreement was signed Thursday. It draws a border between the two countries' exclusive economic zones (EEZ) based on a boundary known as Line 23, and awards a disputed area of around 840 square kilometers (324 square miles) to Lebanon, while recognizing Israel's claim to the Karish gas field and to royalties from the section of the Qana field that extends into Israel's EEZ.
British-Greek company Energean announced on Wednesday that it had begun extracting natural gas from the Karish platform off the northern Israeli coast.
Israel recently set up a rig at Karish, where the flow of gas was delayed in order to give the talks more time, and amid repeated threats of war by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
JNS.org contributed to this report.
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