BEIRUT, Lebanon

Syria said Tuesday a planned visit by a Lebanese delegation for talks on demarcating their maritime border has been postponed.

“The visit was postponed, not cancelled,” Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdel Karim Ali told a press conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut following his meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun.

He cited lack of time for postponing the visit, which was scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

The diplomat said the date of the visit was announced by Beirut “before being discussed with Damascus.”

Lebanon said Monday it will dispatch a delegation to Damascus on Wednesday for talks on delineating maritime border between the two countries.

A dispute emerged last year between Lebanon and Syria over their border after Damascus granted a license to a Russian energy company to begin maritime exploration in an area claimed by Lebanon.

Lebanon is set to sign a US-brokered deal for maritime border demarcation with Israel on Thursday.

Lebanon and Israel have been locked in a dispute over a maritime area of 860 square kilometers (332 square miles) rich in gas and oil, according to maps sent by both countries to the UN in 2011.

Negotiations over the territory in the Mediterranean Sea, which contain part of the Karish gas field and Qana, a prospective gas field, have been ongoing since 2020.

*Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report