The American mediator Amos Hochstein will arrive this Sunday evening in Lebanon. The fate of the maritime border demarcation file between Lebanon and Israel should appear by next week, and thus the shape of the next stage will be determined.
It is certain that the file and its repercussions will be at the forefront of concerns, despite the country entering an important period as we approach the second anniversary of the Beirut Blast.
As the pace of political consultations increased to come up with a unified position for Lebanon and present it to Hochstein, journalist and political analyst Ibrahim Rayhan confirmed that the atmosphere around the American mediator is positive.
Hochstein would not have decided to return to Lebanon a month after his last visit and two weeks after his visit to Tel Aviv if he had not known that what he has now is a serious proposal.
According to Rayhan’s information that he revealed to local media, Hochstein’s proposal is very close to the one that the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil, spoke about.
In detail, the proposal is related to talking about the area between Line 29 and the Hof Line, which is completely identical to the proposal of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
Pointing out that the approval of this proposition leads everyone to question the reason for the procrastination from 2011 until today, and who benefits from it.
Despite the positive atmosphere, Rayhan expressed his fear of Americans using Bassil’s proposal to impose a new equation that lead him to a presidential settlement in Baabda.
Hence the question of what the next stage will look like if Lebanon refuses to sign and Israel begins extracting oil on the first of September.
In this context, Rayhan said that the ignition of the southern front of Lebanon would not be excluded in this case.
Especially since Hezbollah had openly declared its threat, and then the party would emerge victorious, restoring the legitimacy of its weapons and imposing a new demarcation equation.
