Lebanon is ready to work with Cyprus to exploit potential natural gas deposits in waters between the two east Mediterranean countries, Lebanon’s top diplomat said Friday, even though a deal on offshore rights hasn’t been formally finalized, AP reported.

Cyprus and Lebanon signed an agreement delineating their respective offshore exclusive economic zones in 2007, but the Lebanese parliament has yet to ratify it amid the country’s ongoing maritime border dispute with Israel.

Nevertheless, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart in Nicosia that “with Cyprus there’s no problem, once we found gas we’re ready to go, put it together.”

“We talked about it and I can assure you that Lebanon is ready to do it,” Bou Habib said.

He added that a U.S. written mediation proposal submitted earlier this year that aimed at resolving the Lebanese-Israeli dispute, while much better than previous attempts, is “not enough yet.”

He said both Lebanon’s government and its lawmakers are “all in agreement” on what they seek from a deal with Israel.

“Therefore the response to the Americans hopefully would be soon and it would be one response,” Bou Habib said.

To the north, Cyprus faces an intense challenge from Turkey which claims much of the island’s EEZ as its own and has sent warship-escorted survey ships into the area—earning condemnation from the European Union, of which Cyprus is a member.