BEIRUT: Successful border talks with Israel could revive Lebanon’s devastated economy and remove Hezbollah’s justification for its weapons, analysts told Arab News on Saturday. The first session of US-mediated Lebanese-Israeli talks under UN auspices will take place on Oct. 14 in the Lebanese border town of Naqoura. The negotiations aim to demarcate the disputed maritime border and, later, the land border. Lebanon is hoping that successful talks will provide an appropriate security environment for oil and gas companies to explore off its coast. The first session will have low-level representation, with military and Energy Ministry officials representing Lebanon. Lebanon and Israel are technically at war, and there are no agreed land or sea borders between them. Several points on the UN-demarcated land border — the Blue Line — are disputed by the two countries. Lebanon signed its first offshore oil and gas exploration and production contracts in 2018 with three companies — France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek — to explore Block 4 and Block 9 in the Mediterranean. The latter block is disputed by Israel. Successful exploration would provide a lifeline for Lebanon’s ailing economy. The contracts signed between Lebanon and the consortium obligates the drilling of an exploration well before the end of 2020. These companies have two options: Either proceed with the drilling despite the Israeli-Lebanese dispute, or negotiate with Beirut to postpone the exploration.
“Negotiating with Israel has important political and security results as it will lead to reducing current tensions,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, a researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center.
He said demarcating borders would remove the justification of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah for possessing weapons.
“Lebanon is entering a new phase. It’s possible to negotiate a final solution to the Lebanese-Israeli conflict, and then weapons will be included in Lebanon’s internal formula and, through a gradual phase, in a military strategy,” he said. “The Lebanese Army, therefore, becomes the umbrella, and Hezbollah’s cadres may be integrated into the army or be a stand-alone wing under the army’s command, in return for a political gain that doesn’t violate the balance and parity. There’s talk of making the army’s command Shiite.” On the feasibility of exploring for gas and oil, Ali said: “The political class in Lebanon has been too slow with this, but the gas revolution will remain a fact, and through bilateral agreements, Lebanon can catch up.”
Lebanon pins economic hopes on talks with Israel
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Lebanon pins economic hopes on talks with Israel
- Hezbollah will lose justification for its weapons, analyst tells Arab News
- The negotiations aim to demarcate the disputed maritime border and, later, the land border
82 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza as desperately needed aid fails to reach Palestinians
Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Tuesday, but the aid has not yet reached Palestinians in desperate need.
Jens Laerke, the spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian agency, said no trucks were picked up from the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom, the Israeli border crossing with southern Gaza.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday evening that although the aid had entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.
The Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza said trucks were entering Gaza on Wednesday morning, but it was unclear if that aid would be able to continue deeper into Gaza for distribution. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said its staff had waited several hours to collect aid from the border crossing in order to begin distribution but were unable to do so on Tuesday.
A few dozen Israeli activists opposed to Israel’s decision to allow aid into Gaza while Hamas still holds Israeli hostages attempted to block the trucks carrying the aid on Wednesday morning, but were kept back by Israeli police.
Diplomats come under fire in Jenin
A group of diplomats came under fire while visiting Jenin, a city in the Israel-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Authority. The diplomats were on official mission to observe the humanitarian situation in Jenin when shots rang out.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the shooting.
An aid worker, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, said a delegation of about 20 diplomats was being briefed about the situation in Jenin by the Palestinian Authority. The group of regional, European and Western diplomats were standing near the entrance of the Jenin refugee camp when they heard gunshots just before 2 p.m., though it was unclear where the shots came from, she said. No one was injured, she added.
Footage shows a number of diplomats giving media interviews as rapid shots ring out close to the group, forcing them to run for cover.
Jenin has been the site of Israel’s widespread crackdown against West Bank militants since earlier this year.
On Jan. 21 — just two days after its ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza — Israeli forces descended on Jenin as they have dozens of times since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The fighting displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians, one of the largest West Bank displacements in years.
International pressure increases against Israel
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom. suspended free trade talks with Israel over its intensifying assault, a step that came a day after the UK, Canada and France promised concrete steps to prompt Israel to halt the war. Separately, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was reviewing an EU pact governing trade ties with Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza.
Israel says it is prepared to stop the war once all the hostages taken by Hamas return home and Hamas is defeated, or is exiled and disarmed. Hamas says it is prepared to release the hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory and an end to the war. It rejects demands for exile and disarmament.
Negotiations stalled as Israeli operation widens
Israel called back its senior negotiating team from ceasefire talks in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, saying it would leave lower-level officials in place instead. Qatari leaders, who are mediating negotiations, said there was a large gap between the two sides that they had been unable to bridge.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued across Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations pending an expected expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 of them from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, but has said it is targeting Hamas infrastructure and accused Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday urged world leaders to take immediate action to end Israel’s siege on Gaza, issuing the appeal in a written statement during a visit to Beirut, where he is expected to discuss the disarmament of Palestinian factions in Lebanon’s refugee camps.
“I call on world leaders to take urgent and decisive measures to break the siege on our people in the Gaza Strip,” Abbas said, demanding the immediate entry of aid, an end to the Israeli offensive, the release of detainees, and a full withdrawal from Gaza.
“It is time to end the war of extermination against the Palestinian people. I reiterate that we will not leave, and we will remain here on the land of our homeland, Palestine,” Abbas said.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
Lebanese, Palestinian presidents say era of weapons ‘outside Lebanese state control’ over
- Joint statement says two leaders expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively ‘in the hands of the Lebanese state’
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas said Wednesday that weapons should be under Lebanese state control, meeting in Beirut to discuss disarming Palestinian refugee camps in the country.
A joint statement released by the Lebanese presidency said the two leaders share the “belief that the era of weapons outside Lebanese state control has ended,” adding that both had expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively “in the hands of the Lebanese state.”
Palestinian Authority says Israel fired on diplomats visiting West Bank
- A diplomat present during the visit confirmed to AFP he had heard “repeated shots” coming from inside Jenin refugee camp
RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority accused Israeli forces of firing on diplomats as they visited the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday, releasing video of two soldiers aiming rifles at a group of people.
It condemned “the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces, which deliberately targeted by live fire an accredited diplomatic delegation to the State of Palestine during a field visit to Jenin Governorate.”
A diplomat present during the visit confirmed to AFP he had heard “repeated shots” coming from inside Jenin refugee camp. An Israeli army spokesperson said: “I am looking into it.”
The Israeli army said it was “looking into” the incident and later added that it “regrets the inconvenience” caused during the diplomats' visit.
The identities of the diplomats involved have not been publicly confirmed, but Italy issued a statement saying that “threats to diplomats are unacceptable” following the incident.
EU review of Israel ties ‘devastatingly late’: Amnesty
- Association agreement to be examined over Gaza concerns
- ‘Emboldened by EU inaction — and even backed by some EU states — Israeli leaders have flaunted their genocidal aims’
LONDON: The EU’s decision to review trade and cooperation with Israel in light of concerns over the Gaza war is “devastatingly late,” Amnesty International has said.
On Tuesday, the European Commission agreed to conduct a review into Israel’s potential violation of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The article mandates respect for human rights and democratic principles from both parties.
Seventeen EU member states raised objections to Israel’s conduct in Gaza and demanded the review.
Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty’s European Institutions Office, said: “While this is a welcome first step, it also comes devastatingly late. The extent of human suffering in Gaza for the past 19 months has been unimaginable. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza with chilling impunity.”
The NGO has long called for a review of the EU’s association agreement with Israel. It has cited Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory as a key violation of the agreement.
Israel’s conduct in Gaza has only strengthened calls for a review into European trade with the country.
“Emboldened by EU inaction — and even backed by some EU states — Israeli leaders have flaunted their genocidal aims,” Geddie said.
“The EU’s unofficial policy of appeasement towards Israel is contrary to its member states’ obligations and will forever be judged in the annals of history.”
Geddie warned that any delay in European action would “cost human lives in Gaza.” She called for the EU to immediately suspend all trade linked to Israel’s settlement industry, which has expanded significantly amid the war in Gaza.
“The stakes are too high. If the EU fails to live up to these obligations as a bloc, and seeks to shield itself from its clear legal obligations, its member states must unilaterally suspend all forms of cooperation that may contribute to violations of international law,” Geddie said.
After the EU agreed to probe ties with Israel, Amnesty said it would now focus on pushing for a “meaningful review which takes evidence and international standards into account.”
US to appoint Thomas Barrack as special envoy for Syria, sources say
DAMASCUS/ISTANBUL: The United States will appoint President Donald Trump’s longtime friend and current US ambassador to Turkiye, Thomas Barrack, as a special envoy for Syria, a person with direct knowledge of the matter and a diplomat in Turkiye said.
The decision follows Trump’s landmark announcement last week that US sanctions on Syria would be lifted. It also suggests US acknowledgement that Turkiye has emerged with key regional influence on Damascus since Syrian strongman Bashar Assad’s ouster by rebels in December, ending 14 years of civil war.
Asked for comment, a US State Department spokesperson said: “There is no announcement at this time.”
Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Rubio said he was allowing Turkish embassy staff, including Barrack, to work with local officials in Syria to understand what kind of aid they need.
“We want to help that government succeed, because the alternative is full-scale civil war and chaos, which would, of course, destabilize the entire region,” Rubio said.
A US-Turkish meeting focused on Syria took place in Washington on Tuesday with Barrack in attendance, according to Turkiye’s foreign ministry, which said sanctions relief and efforts to counter terrorism had been discussed.
The US had sought a step-for-step approach to Syria sanctions relief until Trump’s announcement that he was ordering “the cessation of sanctions,” which he said aimed to give Syria a chance to recover from devastating war. He said he made the decision after discussions with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
Trump also met with Syria’s interim president Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on May 14 and urged him to normalize ties with longtime foe Israel following his surprise sanctions announcement.
Removing US sanctions that cut Syria off from the global financial system would clear the way for greater engagement by humanitarian organizations working in Syria, and ease foreign investment and trade as the country looks to rebuild.
