Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib, who participated yesterday (Friday) in the meeting of American mediator Amos Hochstein with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, said that according to information he has – including from the United States and the United Nations – 95% of the agreement marking the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon has been completed. This, Habib added in an interview to the newspaper A-Nahar, that Israel “throws trial balloons” to see the reactions and public opinion in the background of the elections.
According to him, there is an intersection of interests between the parties to complete the agreement soon. The Lebanese official even explained that in his opinion this is the right time to end the issue and sign an agreement because in November the chances of that have decreased. According to him, if Benjamin Netanyahu is elected prime minister, he may blow up the agreement and Lebanon may also have a new president with a different view on the issue (Aon ends his post at the end of October).
In the interview, Habib also referred to the dissatisfaction with the changes made in renewing the mandate of the UN UNIFIL force and claimed that there was Lebanese negligence on the issue, which caused there to be a clause saying that the force could carry out operations in the south of the country without consulting or being coordinated with the army. However, he noted that in his last meeting with the UNIFIL commander, he made it clear that nothing had changed and it was agreed on continuous consultations and cooperation between the army and the UNIFIL force.
At the same time, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon Elias Bou Saab confirmed the report yesterday that during the meetings in Beirut with the American mediator, the latter raised an Israeli demand to accept point B1 in Ras al-Nakura, the so-called line of buoys that connects to the land, for security reasons. In an interview with the website The Lebanese news “Assas Media” said in Saab that Hochstein is expected to send written points of reference to the Lebanese side of the line of sightings to make sure that the matter is not against Lebanon’s interest.
“If we find a solution to the line of patrols, we will be weeks away from an agreement,” he said, adding that the solution Hochstein came up with serves Lebanon’s interest. “What remains is to verify the effects of the new demand on Lebanon’s sovereignty.” Al Akhbar also reported that the issue of the line of buoys (“the maritime blue line”) is currently the thing that to a large extent is delaying the progress towards a quick agreement between the parties.