Hochstein holds talks in Israel on border row, may visit Beirut

U.S. Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security Amos Hochstein held talks Tuesday in Tel Aviv with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli National Security Council chief Tzachi Hanegbi, Israeli and Lebanese media reports said.

“The discussions tackled a number of topics, including the tensions between Israel and Hezbollah and the efforts to reach a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” the reports said.

Al-Akhbar newspaper meanwhile reported that “Western countries have informed Lebanon that Israel is willing to engage in talks over land border demarcation despite its previous objection.”

In Beirut, diplomatic sources said “Lebanon has received information that Hochstein might visit Beirut soon to continue the efforts,” al-Akhbar reported, although Lebanese official sources said that “the Americans have not yet engaged in any official communication with the officials in Lebanon in this regard.”

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib for his part said that “the proposal for the demarcation of the southern border is serious,” noting that delineation is “the solution for the various disputes on the southern border and it is not normalization.”

“There are 13 disputed points on the border with Israel – seven of which are agreed on and six represent points of contention,” Bou Habib added.

The Nidaa al-Watan newspaper meanwhile reported that Hochstein’s visit to Israel had been preceded by “U.S. contacts in both Lebanon and the United States.”

“In Lebanon, U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea held a series of talks with the officials and visited a former security official who is still maintaining his role in a number of files, including following up on the implementation of the maritime demarcation steps. And on the sidelines of his latest visit to the U.S., Central Bank First Vice Governor Wassim Mansouri met with Hochstein, which means that this meeting was held with a designation from Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been following up on maritime border demarcation,” the daily said.

The Army Command has meanwhile started preparing the files of land border demarcation so that they be ready when the time for the demarcation process comes, the newspaper said.