The negotiations strengthen Washington’s role … and Hezbollah is placed under...

With Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announcing the framework agreement to start negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to demarcate the maritime borders under the auspices of the United Nations and mediated by Washington, the United States is returning to the Lebanese arena through the broad door, while the French initiative is still faltering and a holiday that can be extended may go until after the American presidential elections. Unless it is decided to return the soul to it, despite the fact that there are no communications until the hour to float it.

Although it is not permissible to link the start of negotiations to demarcate the maritime borders with the stumbling of the French initiative, the latter was dropped by the refusal of the “Shiite duo” to agree to the roadmap proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron in exchange for this pair’s agreement to free Washington’s hand to mediate between Lebanon and Israel to resolve the conflict. Between them on demarcating the borders, leading to giving the green light to start exploration for gas in the Lebanese Special Economic Zone.

The Speaker of Parliament did not take upon himself to announce the framework agreement to start negotiations if he was not in agreement with his ally, Hezbollah, despite the fact that its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah avoided in his last speech that he devoted to toppling the French initiative to give any signal regarding the start of negotiations that was supposed to be. It was launched last July, but Washington, according to Lebanese sources, told Asharq Al-Awsat that it was slow to agree to its launch and chose the middle of this month to hold the first round of negotiations in the presence of the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker.

The political sources affirm that Hezbollah’s silence through Nasrallah’s neglect of the negotiations issue is evidence of his tacit approval on the grounds that he made his decision to position himself under the mantle of Speaker Berri because he has no ability to disrupt or prevent these negotiations. She says that “Hezbollah” is currently exercising positive opposition, and attributes the reason to the fact that its leadership wants to distance itself from accusing it of obstructing the start of negotiations for gas exploration and therefore there are those who hold it responsible for taking the country into bankruptcy.

In other words, “Hezbollah” – according to these sources – decided to withdraw its threats to Israel from the discussion on the background of its seizure of Lebanese wealth in the areas that are freely subject to the sovereignty of the Lebanese state, and it entrusted Berri to announce the framework agreement to start negotiations to dispel the suspicion that it obstructs the rescue plan to stop Financial and economic collapse.

These sources believe that Hezbollah has become convinced since last year, with the start of the financial and economic situation rolling towards the abyss, of the necessity to search for a way out that allows Lebanon to benefit from its wealth, so that it might stop this collapse, and it had no choice but to agree to negotiations. Berri said in his press conference that indirect negotiations will take place based on the experience of the tripartite mechanism that has existed since the signing of the Armistice Agreement and the April Understanding in 1996, in which the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had a role in achieving to stop the war launched by Israel against Lebanon under The slogan “Grapes of Wrath”, and currently UN Resolution 1701, which ended the Israeli war on Lebanon in July 2006.

Berri did not invoke this trilogy to confirm that negotiations to demarcate the maritime and land borders will take place under the US administration and under the UN flag at UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura in southern Lebanon, but rather to make a direct indication that Hezbollah has a connection to the April Understanding and Resolution 1701.

In this context, the same sources reveal that Hezbollah will not object to Berri’s announcement, and he wanted to invoke his mandate during the July War to negotiate with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the time, who reached with the council president in conjunction with the arrival of the Lebanese government headed by President Fouad Siniora, to a similar understanding that was behind Resolution 1701 of the UN Security Council.

And confirms that the representative of “Hezbollah” in the government, Minister Muhammad Fneish, tried to record his reservation on Resolution 1701, so Siniora took the initiative to address him, saying: “There is no room for bidding, and I am the first to record his reservation.” This prompted Fneish to withdraw his reservation.

Therefore, Hezbollah will not be able to act on the fact that Berri has not been given the green light to announce the framework agreement, which, with the start of negotiations, is supposed to contribute to reducing the level of tension in the south. Likewise, “Hezbollah” cannot enter into an auction targeting Berri, especially since indirect negotiations remain, until further notice, the only way out for Lebanon to benefit from its oil wealth, because the alternatives are not available and are governed by a ceiling of a balance of terror to preserve the rules of engagement without any modification.

Accordingly, Berri’s mandate – as these sources say – and with an understanding with President Michel Aoun, to announce the framework of the agreement that will be entrusted to the army leadership to engage in indirect negotiations, led to the emergence of another political scene for the “Shiite duo” other than the scene directed at toppling the French initiative. .

Asharq Al-Awsat learned that Washington has set the zero hour for the start of these negotiations so that US President Donald Trump can benefit from them and employ them in his battle against his rival, Joe Biden, to return to the White House in the elections scheduled for next November.

In “Asharq Al-Awsat” information that Iran, from the site of its political clash with the United States, will assume the status of an observer because it cannot disrupt the negotiations to eliminate the suspicion that it is controlling the internal decision in Lebanon, and this is what constitutes an international embarrassment for it, and therefore it wanted to show goodwill from a position of difference. In preparation for renewing its negotiations with Washington immediately after the end of the US presidential elections.