BEIRUT - Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati told Reuters by phone on Wednesday that U.S. guarantees would protect a maritime border deal with Israel should Israel's conservative former premier Benjamin Netanyahu win a majority in elections.

Netanyahu had threatened to "neutralize" the agreement, which came into force last week after years of indirect U.S.-brokered talks and set out the sea boundary between the two enemy states.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Nick Macfie)