Lebanon's Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc said on Thursday that negotiations with Israel over maritime borders "are not connected to" making peace with Israel.
The Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc, Hezbollah’s political wing, said in a press release that Beirut does not have any interest in expanding talks beyond the maritime dispute.
"Despite all the talk that has been going around, the negotiating framework deals with our southern maritime borders and reclaiming our land, so as to delineate our national sovereignty."
“It has absolutely nothing to do with ‘reconciling’ with the rapacious Zionist enemy, nor with the normalization that some Arab countries have adopted,” the bloc added, referring to the historic Abraham Accords, signed between Israel and Gulf neighbors Bahrain and the UAE on September 15.
Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri confirmed last month that a framework had been agreed for talks with Israel to end a long-running maritime border dispute between the two nations that are formally at war.
Berri, who said the army would lead the Lebanese team, told a news conference negotiations would be held in south Lebanon near the border under the auspices of the United Nations and the United States would push for a deal as fast as possible.
The talks will begin on October 14 and will be held at the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, in the southern border town of Naqoura.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who will lead the Israeli delegation, later confirmed the statement.
"Our goal is to end the dispute over the demarcation of economic water between Israel and Lebanon in order to help develop natural resources for the benefit of all the peoples of the region," said Steinitz. "For the first time in 30 years, civil-political negotiations between Israel and Lebanon will take place after two years of indirect contacts."