Talks begin on demarcation of Lebanon-Israel maritime border

Lebanon and Israel prepared to begin indirect talks on Wednesday over their disputed maritime border, with American officials acting as mediators.

Both sides insist the talks are purely technical and not a sign of any normalization of ties.

The U.S. has been mediating the issue for about a decade, but only earlier this month a breakthrough was reached on an agreement on a framework for U.S.-mediated talks.

The development comes against the backdrop of Lebanon's spiraling economic crisis, the worst in its modern history, and following a wave of U.S. sanctions that recently included two influential former Cabinet ministers allied with the militant Hezbollah group.

Israel, the United States, as well as some other Western and Arab countries consider the Iran-allied Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

Beirut hopes that oil and gas discoveries in its territorial waters will help it overcome the crisis and pay back its massive debt that stands at 170% of the GDP, making it one of the highest in the world.

The U.S.-mediated talks are to take place at a U.N. post along the border known as Ras Naqoura on the edge of the Lebanese border town of Naqoura. The Lebanese delegation will speak through U.N. and U.S. officials to the Israelis.

Israel and Lebanon have no diplomatic relations and are technically in a state of war.

They each claim about 860 square kilometres (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea as being within their own exclusive economic zones.

This story has not been edited by www.republicworld.com and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.