“I remain optimistic that we can make continuous progress as we have over the last several weeks and I look forward to coming back to the region and being able to make the final arrangement,” Hochstein said following meetings at Baabda Palace in Lebanon.
Hochstein traveled to Beirut for talks with the Lebanese leadership on the country’s energy crisis, as well as for negotiations on its maritime boundaries, the US State Department said on Sunday.
The Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri participated in the meeting.
Israel and Lebanon have since 1996 attempted to resolve an overlap between the nations’ territorial waters situated over large fossil fuel deposits. The US-mediated negotiations began in 2020.
The Biden administration has said that reaching a deal on the demarcation of the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon is critical and only possible through diplomacy.