Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Friday there is more optimism than ever on reaching a deal to delineate the country's maritime border with Israel via U.S. mediation, according to a tweet from the ministry's account.
"There has never been optimism to the extent that there is today," Bou Habib said, noting that the U.S. official mediating the dispute, Amos Hochstein, would arrive in Beirut over the weekend for talks with Lebanese officials.
Lebanon and Israel are locked in U.S.-mediated negotiations to delineate a shared maritime border that would help determine which oil and gas resources belong to which country and pave the way for more exploration.