Lebanese anticipation of the results of Nawaf Salam’s visit to Washington and his discussions with the American administration

The Lebanese are awaiting the return of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to Beirut from Washington to clarify the results of his meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

A Lebanese source following the meetings that Salam held in Washington, especially with Rubio and US Treasury Secretary Scott Besent, and with the administrations of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, said that these meetings “come in the context of revitalizing Lebanese-American communications to keep the Lebanese file on the US administration’s agenda, in the hope that it will lead to accelerating steps to achieve the financial reforms required of the government, in a way that provides support that enables it to reduce its living burdens in light of talk of union preparations to go down.” To the street in protest against the high prices that the majority of the Lebanese complain about.

The source said that the meeting with Rubio topped an agenda that included several points, most notably the alternative to the international emergency forces “UNIFIL,” and pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent him from expanding the security zone by annexing the highlands located between Iqlim al-Tuffah and Jabal al-Rayhan to it, as well as resuming the eighth round of negotiations with Israel. So that it does not remain suspended until the Knesset elections are held in Israel on next October 27, and also the formation of a mechanism to verify the deployment of the Lebanese army in the “experimental zone” after expanding it by annexing occupied villages and towns to it and ensuring that it is free of “Hezbollah” weapons and its fighters. Finally, following the concomitant steps between the army’s deployment and Israel’s withdrawal.

Asharq Al-Awsat learned from an official Lebanese source, who is attending peace meetings in Washington, that the American administration is striving to prepare the atmosphere for the eighth round of negotiations to be held, but at the Lebanese-Israeli military level, under American sponsorship, and in the presence of the head of the Lebanese negotiating delegation, former Ambassador Simon Karam, to be held in Florida in the second half of next month, that is, about a week before the elections in Israel. It is communicating with Israel to confirm the date of its holding, most likely next October 20.

As for the search for an alternative to UNIFIL after the end of its mandate at the end of this year, the source confirmed that communications have come some way towards selecting an alternative, but it is still not ready and needs more communications, knowing that Lebanon insists on receiving cover from the United Nations and the blessing of European Union countries if it is decided to replace it with European forces, while Lebanon insists on removing the “verification mechanism” from the tensions to expand the “experimental zone” in a way that allows the army to gradually spread in the towns that withdraw. Including Israel.

The source pointed out that Lebanon is requesting the intervention of the United States of America to put pressure on Netanyahu to prevent his expansion of the security zone, although he does not assume that it is not trusted, even though passing the Israeli elections, by maintaining the status quo, blocks the way for him to expand it later. Because he will not be able to use it in his electoral battle, in addition to the fact that the United States is insisting on its position of neutralizing Beirut and its southern suburbs, including Rafik Hariri International Airport, from the ongoing war in the south, and reducing the level of targeting of Bekaa villages with a Shiite majority.

The source confirmed that what unites Salam Probio is their agreement to activate the “Framework Agreement” to drop what Hezbollah is using as a pretext to retain its weapons, especially since strengthening the Lebanese position undermines the party’s pretexts and besieges it in front of its incubator, which constantly asks it about the reasons behind its commitment to a ceasefire and not responding to Israeli violations and attacks, even though it constantly threatens through its Secretary General Naim Qassem that there will be no return to what the situation was before last March 2. Armed with launching 6 missiles in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

He said that Lebanon remains committed to its choice of adhering to the “Framework Agreement”, to the exclusivity of weapons in the hands of the state, and to separate the Lebanese track from Iran and not link it to the Iranian-American “Memorandum of Understanding”, the implementation of which is still faltering and is interspersed with the exchange of fiery threats between the two signatory parties.

He pointed out that Qassem's call for dialogue was not responded to, and the response to it came with high-pitched positions in protest against the targeting of the Presidents of the Republic, General Joseph Aoun, and the government, Nawaf Salam, while he avoided being frank with his environment about what happened in the "Ali Al-Taher" hills and the party being forced to evacuate them, confining himself to talking about the steadfastness of his fighters for more than three months there.

The source added that Qassem’s speech on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of Israel’s assassination of his predecessors, Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safi al-Din, did not contain anything new. Rather, it was a reiteration of previous positions instead of addressing the Lebanese with a conciliatory stance, mostly apologizing to them for his uniqueness in supporting Gaza and Iran, instead of engaging in the state project and deciding to assign it to Lebanon to get it out of its crisis and turn the page on the past, which burdens the party with material and human costs that cannot be reached. Estimated at a price.

The source asked whether his ally, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, stood by him in his speech in which he criticized Aoun and accused him of violating the constitution and overthrowing the “Taif Agreement” and the ministerial statement, even though officials in the “Amal” movement, which he heads, criticized him in their private councils for his unique positions that constituted a point of disagreement with them, especially since his call to turn the page on the past in favor of a new page of openness remained in words and not in action.