Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat asked Thursday why the army was absent from the demarcation deal, considering that the deal confirms the "truce."

"Where is the sovereign wealth fund," Jumblat also asked, in a tweet.

Lebanon and Israel were Thursday set to sign a maritime border agreement that paves the way for lucrative offshore gas extraction by the neighbors which remain technically at war.

The U.S.-brokered deal, hailed by President Joe Biden as a "historic breakthrough", comes as Western powers clamor to open up new gas production and reduce vulnerability to supply cuts from Russia. 

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday claimed Israel's foe Lebanon de-facto "recognizes" the state of Israel, due to a sea border deal the two states are set to sign imminently.

"This is a political achievement -- it is not every day that an enemy state recognizes the State of Israel, in a written agreement, in front of the entire international community," Lapid said.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein met Thursday in Baabda with President Michel Aoun, in the presence of Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab and Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

"I truly believe and hope this can be an economic turning point in Lebanon for a new era of investment and continued support to lift up the economy," Hochstein said, before leaving Baabda to the Grand Serail where he met with Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati.

MP Michel Mouawad on Wednesday urged lawmakers to back his bid for the presidency, denouncing Hezbollah's "stranglehold" on the crisis-hit country.

MPs have been unable to pick a successor to President Michel Aoun whose term ends next week, stoking fears of a political crisis that would further compound three years of economic meltdown.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib announced Wednesday that “there are no complications regarding the discussions for sea border demarcation with Syria.

“We will agree with the Syrians on another date for the beginning of the border demarcation talks,” Bou Habib added, in remarks to Al-Jazeera TV.

U.S. Special Presidential Coordinator Amos Hochstein will travel to Lebanon Thursday to finalize the “historic agreement to establish a permanent maritime boundary between Lebanon and Israel,” the U.S. State Department said.

In Beirut, Hochstein will meet with President Michel Aoun, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, and Prime Minister Najib Mikati to “extend his gratitude to each for the consultative and open spirit demonstrated throughout the negotiations, the foundations of which were created under Speaker Berri’s leadership by the 2020 Framework,” the State Department said in a statement.

Gas production has started at Karish, an offshore field at the center of a maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon, London-listed Energean said Wednesday.

"Gas is being produced from the Karish Main-02 well and the flow of gas is being steadily ramped up," a statement from the company said.

The Saudi Embassy in Beirut has invited all former MPs who took part in the 1989 Taif meetings to attend a conference at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut on November 5, a media report said on Wednesday.

The conference will be titled “Taif 33 – The Lebanese National Accord”, Annahar newspaper said.

The majority of the parliamentary blocs, except for the Lebanese Forces, are open to participate in a national dialogue suggested by Speaker Nabih Berri, ad-Diyar newspaper reported Wednesday.

The LF party, unlike the rest, is not interested in a dialogue that might impose a consensual president, the daily added.