Israeli, Lebanese officials at same table for signing but don’t speak

Israeli and Lebanese officials describe a tense but emotional ceremony to ratify the maritime border agreement in which representatives from the two enemy states sat at the same table but did not speak.

A Reuters reporter, citing an official at the Lebanese town of Naqoura, says the two delegations sat around a small table along with US mediator Amos Hochstein and a UN delegation.

The Israelis and Lebanese did not talk to each other, but at the end of the ceremony, Hochstein said, “We have a maritime border. Congratulations!” and everyone clapped, the report says.

Aliza Bin-Noun, political director at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, tells Army Radio that while they were all in the tent at the UN base together and seated at a square table, she could not interact with the Lebanese. There was no opportunity to talk, she says.

Nevertheless, she says it was a “very emotional” ceremony for her, noting that she grew up in Nahariya on Israel’s northern border and for her, Lebanon meant katyusha rockets and the threats from the Hezbollah terror group, not international agreements.

She notes that while the agreement is not a peace deal, it is nonetheless an agreement between states and suggests it could serve as a precedent for progress between Israel and other countries with which Israel has no ties.