Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri insisted on the issue during a meeting with US energy envoy Amos Hochstein, who arrived in this Mediterranean country to resume talks between Beirut and Tel Aviv on maritime limits.

Hochstein also met with President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, to address a dispute between Lebanon and the Israeli regime.

A hope for Lebanon to get oil and gas out of its jurisdictional maritime waters derives from the results of those negotiations.

The United States and the UN are involved as mediators in this rare dialogue, since neither Lebanese nor Israelis talk face to face; Beirut’s arguments are relayed by a UN negotiator and Tel Aviv’s by a US one.

pgh/iff/rgh/arc/gdc