Lebanon Stands Firm: Authorities Deliver Scathing Response to Hochstein’s Ceasefire Initiative.
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, quoting Arab diplomatic sources, announced that Amos Hockstein, the US envoy to Lebanon, had intensive contacts with the Israeli parties before leaving for Beirut and assured them that he wanted to present an agreement to Lebanon that ignored Tel Aviv’s conditions. has not been
These sources state that Hochstein formed a diplomatic work team for himself, but failed to express Israel’s demands in a way that would be acceptable to the Lebanese. Before coming to Lebanon, he tried to send a threatening message to several officials of this country through Lisa Johnson, the American ambassador in Beirut, that they were not in a position to make a big dispute about his plan and that not accepting the plan meant continuing. There will be war and the situation will become more difficult.
Hochstein met with several diplomats and security elements at the American embassy and said that he would not discuss the issue of the Lebanese presidency and would not mention the name of the current army commander as the main candidate for the presidency, but in his talks with Nabih Bari and Najib Mikati, the leaders of the parliament and the government, completely ignored this issue to advance affairs in Lebanon.
According to the aforementioned sources, Hochstein’s plan for peace in the border area with the Zionist regime is based on the absence of armed elements in the Lebanese areas close to the borders. He demanded to expand the geographical framework of the presence of multinational forces to a few kilometers after the Litani River and said that the number of multinational forces as well as some elements of the Lebanese army in this area should be increased.
This plan also called for increasing the powers of multinational forces and the right to search cars and various positions and to conduct sudden patrols in the region and said that there should be no need to issue a license from the government in this regard.
Expanding the activities of multinational forces on the coast of Lebanon from the south to the north and the ports of this country and the right to inspect vehicles entering Lebanon are other powers that Hochstein has requested for the UNIFIL forces in this country. The establishment of UNIFIL monitoring teams in civilian airports and the establishment of watchtowers on the borders of Lebanon and Syria are other things that the US representative demands from Korea for UNIFIL forces in this country.