"The Government of Israel, today, approved the agreement on a maritime boundary between Israel and Lebanon," the government said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid will soon sign the agreement, the government added. The signing procedure will take place in the presence of US and UN representatives in the Lebanese town of Naqoura located near the border between the two countries. There will be no official ceremony due to the absence of diplomatic relations between the states, and the delegations will stay in different rooms during the signing.
"This is a tremendous achievement for the State of Israel, and for the Government of Israel. This agreement strengthens Israel's security and our freedom of action against Hezbollah and the threats to our north," the Israeli leader said, as quoted by his office.
There is a rare consensus in security agencies of the country regarding the necessity of the border demarcation agreement with Lebanon, according to Lapid.
"It is not every day that an enemy country recognizes the State of Israel, in a written agreement, in view of the international community. It is not every day the United States and France stand behind us and provide security and economic guarantees for an agreement," the Israeli prime minister added.
Earlier in the day, Lapid told a special cabinet meeting that the deal marked a great political and economic achievement for Israel.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun, in turn, has already handed a letter to US mediator Amos Hochstein, confirming Beirut's consent to the final version of the agreement, Lebanese parliament spokesman Elias Bou Saab said earlier in the day. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry has passed information about new coordinates of its maritime borders to the United Nations.
The negotiations on the demarcation of land and maritime borders between Lebanon and Israel had been taking place in the Lebanese town of Naqoura since 1996 on the basis of the memorandum of understanding under the UN auspices and the US mediation. In June 2022, Israel urged the Lebanese authorities to speed up the talks. It called the Karish gas field located in the Eastern Mediterranean its strategic asset and assured Lebanon of the absence of plans to produce gas in the disputed territory.
On October 11, the two countries agreed on the US-mediated draft agreement on the demarcation of a maritime border, thus ending the decades-old dispute. The deal will open the way for offshore oil and gas exploration, and prevent a potential conflict between Lebanon and Israel.