In border ceremony without handshakes, Israel-Lebanon agreement goes into effect

A maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon goes into effect.

The deal was signed separately by Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun in Beirut and by Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Jerusalem, and went into effect after the papers were delivered to mediators at a ceremony at a UN base on the border.

Israel is represented by Energy Minister Karin Elharar. The exchange of letters was held in the base in the southern Lebanese town of Naqura, in the presence of US mediator Amos Hochstein and the United Nations’s special coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka.

The two sides delivered their letters to Hochstein, who checked that they were identical and signed the agreement. The Israeli and Lebanese delegations did not interact, Channel 12 reports.

Agencies contributed to this report