Israel’s government approved a US-brokered maritime border deal with Lebanon on Thursday, a statement from Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s office said.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun earlier signed a letter approving the deal, which will be formally sealed later on Thursday.

The deal is believed to mark a diplomatic departure from decades of hostility.

Speaking from the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, negotiator Elias Bou Saab said the agreement marked the beginning of “a new era” and that the letter would be submitted to US officials at Lebanon’s southernmost border point of Naqoura later on Thursday.

It has been hailed by all three parties as a “historic achievement”.

The Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah said on October 12 that the group will not recognize any maritime border deal between Lebanon and the Israeli regime until it is officially signed.

(The New Arab, PC, SOCIAL)