Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has directed fresh criticism at Lebanon over the maritime border dispute.
Washington has been brokering talks aimed at demarcating the frontier and allowing both sides to ramp up gas exploration.
“I look forward to the day Lebanon will decide to take advantage of the natural gas in its economic water,” said Bennett.
“It’s a shame that Lebanon’s leadership, instead of extracting gas for its people, is busy fighting internally and externally,” he added.
Lebanon on Tuesday offered to hold back on demands for maritime territory where Israel plans to imminently extract gas, a Lebanese official told AFP.
Beirut’s new proposal to visiting U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein however included a claim for all of a separate field that it had initially only sought part of, the official close to the negotiations said, on condition of anonymity.
Israel is estimated to have gas reserves of at least one trillion cubic meters, with domestic use over the next three decades expected to total no more than 300 billion.