BEIRUT: Hezbollah Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan accused the U.S. Sunday of indirectly aiding Israel to claim part of the Lebanese maritime economic zone by presenting a plan to resolve this issue, the National News Agency reported.

“The Zionist ambitions in Lebanon have never stopped and, from what we have heard about an American plan to settle the boundaries of the maritime region under which the gas is found, we believe this plan is an attempt by Israel to put its hand on parts of the Lebanese maritime economical zone,” Haj Hasan said during a ceremony for Al-Imam al-Mahdy Scouts in the Bekaa city of Hermel.

A U.S. proposal on the boundary separating the Lebanese and Israeli maritime economic zones is the latest initiative to end a lingering dispute over rival claims.The U.S. government has been mediating a solution between Lebanon and Israel since mid-2011.