Jerusalem - (AFP) - Israel rejected today, Thursday, amendments proposed by Lebanon to a draft agreement on the demarcation of maritime borders with Israel that would facilitate the investment of potential resources of oil and gas at sea.

A senior Israeli official told AFP, "Israel received the Lebanese response to the mediators' proposal, and Prime Minister Yair Lapid was briefed on the details of the fundamental changes that Lebanon is seeking to make and instructed the negotiating team to reject them."

The draft proposal put forward by the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, and presented to the Israeli and Lebanese sides, includes a set of proposals related to the demarcation of the southern maritime borders.

In practice, the two countries are at war, and the last war Israel fought against Hezbollah, in 2006, lasted 34 days.

The Hebrew state welcomed Hochstein's proposal, but Prime Minister Lapid confirmed that it would be subject to legal review before it was presented for final government approval.

On Tuesday, Lebanon presented its response to the American proposal.

According to the Israeli official, who asked not to be identified, "Israel will not give up its security and economic interests, even if this causes the failure to reach an agreement."

Last week, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati expressed optimism about making progress on the agreement, and the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, considered the American proposal a "very important step."

On Tuesday, a Lebanese official involved in the two negotiations said that Beirut's response to the initial US proposal included "amendments to specific sentences so that there is no misunderstanding."

Negotiations between Lebanon and Israel began in 2020, then stopped in May 2021 due to differences over the size of the disputed area after Lebanon demanded to amend the map used by the United Nations during the talks, which it said was based on wrong estimates.

The talks between the two sides, upon their inception, were supposed to be limited to an estimated marine area of about 860 square kilometers, whose borders are known as Line 23, based on a map that Lebanon sent in 2011 to the United Nations.

However, Lebanon later considered that the map was based on erroneous estimates, and demanded that an additional area of 1,430 square kilometers be searched, including parts of the Karish field, known as Line 29.

Since the beginning of June, developments related to the file have accelerated after a pause for months, following the arrival of a production and storage ship near the Karish field, in preparation for the start of gas extraction from it.

Beirut considers it to be located in a disputed area, while Israel says it is within its exclusive economic zone.

Hezbollah issued a series of threats to Israel, warning it not to undertake any activity in Karish before reaching an agreement on the demarcation of the maritime borders.