US envoy says looking at possibilities for solving Israel-Lebanon border dispute

BEIRUT — A senior US envoy visiting Beirut says that Washington is looking into possibilities for solving a decades-old border dispute between Lebanon and Israel, a year after he brokered a deal on the maritime frontier between the two nations.

Amos Hochstein, a senior advisor to US President Joe Biden, also expresses disappointment with Lebanon’s reluctance to implement reforms amid the country’s historic economic meltdown. He speaks to reporters at the end of a two-day visit to Lebanon during which he met with the caretaker prime minister, the parliament speaker and other officials.

Hochstein last year brokered a maritime border deal between Lebanon and Israel paving the way for gas exploration in the area, in what many hope will eventually help pull Beirut out of its economic crisis. Lebanon and Israel have formally been at war since Israel’s creation in 1948.

Asked whether he is coming to mediate between Lebanon and Israel over their disputed land border, Hochstein says that he listened to the views of the Lebanese government, then visited the border area “to learn more about what is needed in order to be able to achieve an outcome.”

Hochstein adds that he now plans to hear the Israeli view “and to make an assessment if this is the right time and if we have a window of opportunity to be able to achieve it.” He adds that the US “always supports what enables stability and security.”