ANSD : Berri tells US envoy border proposal 'unacceptable'

SUN 24 - 11 - 2024

Date: Feb 16, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Berri tells US envoy border proposal 'unacceptable'

BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri told United States Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield that current proposals put forward to resolve border disputes with Israel were “unacceptable.”

According to a statement from the speaker’s office, Berri told Satterfield that “the disputed Lebanon-Israel maritime border should be drawn through the 1996 committee.”

Satterfield meets Berri, Bassil after Tillerson visit

BEIRUT: United States Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield Friday met separately with Speaker Nabih Berri and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, a day after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Beirut.

“Satterfield continues to engage on regional issues and on helping Lebanon prosper through the development of its resources in agreement with all of its neighbors," a source from the American Embassy in Lebanon told The Daily Star ahead of the meeting.

The sit downs come as local media reports that Satterfield will be heading to Israel within 48 hours.

Few details were released from Bassil and Satterfield's roughly 45 minute meeting, after which they both departed the foreign ministry without making statements.

The pair did not respond to The Daily Star's questions regarding the details of new proposals Tillerson put forward to solve the southern border dispute between Lebanon and Israel.

Tillerson reportedly brought up the proposals during meetings with top Lebanese officials, after a previous proposal was roundly rejected by Lebanon.

A foreign ministry statement said Bassil and Satterfield "reviewed the situation in Lebanon and the region."

The meetings come at a time when Israel has increased its rhetoric against Lebanon over claims to potential oil and gas reserves in the Mediterranean Sea and begun construction on a cement wall along the border with Lebanon.

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