Hezbollah is cautiously monitoring the US move to mediate between Lebanon and Israel on border demarcation negotiations currently underway by Acting US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ambassador David Satterfield.
The party appears to have succumbed to the government’s decision to proceed with the new US mediation, although it is still likely to be dealing with the US as an “impartial mediator” in the demarcation negotiations, as declared by Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah last year when he said that America was “Israel’s lawyer” in this battle.
However, in a recent statement, Nasrallah stressed that the “resistance supports the position of the State and stands behind it.”
The party insists that the Lebanese State should deal with any negotiations from a position of strength, arguing that if the Israelis could prevent Lebanon from obtaining oil and gas, Lebanon could also stop them from accessing this wealth.
According to sources in March 8 forces, Hezbollah maintains that the demarcation of the land and maritime borders should be completed simultaneously. Lebanese negotiators have conveyed this demand to Satterfield. In addition, Hezbollah categorically rejects any compromise on the Lebanese territories, as Western sources have circulated proposals that Lebanon will abandon five out of 13 points of disputed land, over which the country had stressed its sovereignty.
The sources added that Hezbollah was absolutely against any proposal that would lead to abandoning an inch of Lebanese territories, whether at sea or land.
The head of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis – INEGMA, Riad Kahwaji, said that Lebanon today had a unique opportunity to demarcate its borders.
“Therefore, any party that will try to sabotage what is happening means that it does not seek Lebanon’s supreme interest,” he noted.
“The good and wise Lebanese option is to deal positively with the issue,” Kahwaji told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Kahwaji said that the main question that arises at this stage is “whether Tehran is ready to abandon the tension in southern Lebanon or it will continue to exploit it for its own geopolitical purposes.”
