Lebanese President Michel Aoun called his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad and both leaders discussed bilateral ties and the demarcation of maritime border between the two countries, Al-Akhbar daily reported.

The newspaper said the call took place two days ago, reporting that the two presidents agreed on forming official delegation to hold meetings in both Beirut and Damascus in a bid to reach an agreement on the issue.

President Aoun and President Assad agreed to hold meetings in a bid to reach a deal, “especially that the dispute points between Lebanon and Syria are not serious, although they need legal and technical discussions,” according to Al-Akhbar.

The two presidents stressed that the Lebanese-Syrian maritime talks won’t be mediated by any third party, and that the agreement between the two countries won’t be by any means like the maritime settlement between Lebanon and the Zionist entity.

“The agreement will be recorded as an accord between two countries,” Al-Akhbar reported, noting that the concerned parties started to prepare the needed documents, coordinates and the lines related to the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of each country.

Meanwhile, the paper added that Lebanon received an official letter by Cyprus’ Foreign Ministry in which Nicosia called on Beirut to fasten the launch of talks between the two countries on the issue of their maritime border in light of the maritime settlement between Lebanon and the Zionist entity.

“Lebanon asked Cypriot authorities to delay dispatching an official delegation to Beirut until the next weekend so that the maritime deal with the Zionist entity will be finalized, paving the way for the discussion with Cyprus in a bid to ‘correct the points and the coordinates’ before installing them at the United Nations,” Al-Akhabr reported.

Source: Al-Akhbar Newspaper (Translated and edited by Al-Manar English Website Staff)