Lebanon president says negotiations on maritime border with israel came to 'positive end'

Lebanon's President Michel Aoun addresses the nation from the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon October 13, 2022. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS

Lebanon's President Michel Aoun announced on Thursday his country's acceptance of the U.S.-brokered maritime border deal with Israel, saying talks had come to "a positive end."

Aoun said the deal represented an "historic achievement" in which Lebanon regained 860 square km of disputed maritime territory but insisted it did not pave the way to normalization of relations with Israel.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily; editing by Jonathan Oatis)