The American ambassador suppresses the “rebels”: Forget the line 29

Next week, a copy of Tel Aviv’s response to the Lebanese proposals to demarcate the southern maritime borders is expected to arrive in Beirut, which was brought to the occupying country by the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, who held two meetings via video technology with officials in the Israeli negotiating delegation. While the two sides kept quiet about what happened in the two meetings, it was announced in Israel that the negotiating team “listened to the latest developments” and “discussed formulating a constructive approach that would allow the negotiations to move forward, while preserving Israel’s economic and security interests.” On the other hand, a statement from the US State Department, the day before yesterday, indicated that the talks were “productive” and led to “narrowing the differences between the two sides.” The statement expressed “the United States’ readiness to continue working with the relevant parties in the coming days and weeks.”

Yesterday, he announced a “prolonged contact” between Hochstein and Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab, who described in a tweet the US State Department statement as “positive, and we appreciate the US administration’s pledge to communicate in the coming days, which we hope will lead to the resumption of indirect negotiations in Naqoura.” ». Note that sources close to Bou Saab ruled out a possible return to Hochstein in Lebanon.
According to Israeli media, Hochstein conveyed to Tel Aviv Lebanon’s agreement to stop claiming the Karish field, provided that the Israeli side accepts to stop claiming any part of the Qana field. Sources following up on the file in Beirut told Al-Akhbar that the US State Department’s intentionally referring to “narrowing the space for differences” means that the American mediator has reached “something with the Israelis or is in the process of doing so.” She suggested the possibility of Hochstein succeeding in pushing the enemy to withdraw its claim to Line 1 after it succeeded in extracting a verbal Lebanese abandonment of Line 29, which means reducing the dispute and ensuring a return to Line 23. Accordingly, it is assumed that the next step will be to revive the indirect negotiating table in Naqoura. “Without reciprocal conditions,” in compliance with what Hochstein requested in Beirut during his visit, provided that the search is limited to the “Hof” line and the modified 23 line, after Lebanon added a few kilometers to it, ensuring that it obtained the entire “Qana” field, with a Lebanese commitment not to return to claiming the line. 29 in exchange for a similar Israeli commitment not to bring up Line 1.
On the other hand, it seemed remarkable that the political forces and the new MPs who “revolted” during the past weeks, demanding Line 29, had disappeared from hearing, and most of them stopped talking about the matter. According to well-informed sources, the American ambassador in Beirut, Dorothy Shea, worked to “repress the impulse” of these people, and told them that their outbidding against President Michel Aoun, in the belief that their position would embarrass Hezbollah, might bring the opposite result, and translate Lebanese hardness in the demand for Line 29 to turn As a cover for any military action by Hezbollah in the event that Israel takes practical steps in the field of extracting energy from the sea before reaching an agreement.