Explanation

Israel and Lebanon struck a US-brok­ered maritime border agreement on Thursday that opens up lucrative offshore gas fields for the neighbours that remain technically at war. US President Joe Biden hailed the “historic” deal that comes as Western powers clamour to open up new energy production and reduce vulnerability to supply cuts from Russia. The agreement was signed separately by Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun in Beirut and by Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Jerusalem, and went into effect after the papers were delivered to mediators. “Both parties took the final steps to bring the agreement into force and submitted the final paperwork to the United Nations in the pre­s­ence of the United Stat­es,” Biden said in a statement.