Report: Lebanon Inclined to Reject Hochstein's Proposal
Lebanon seems to be inclined to reject U.S. envoy Amon Hochstein’s proposal regarding the demarcation of the sea border with Israel, a media report said on Friday.
“There is an inclination to reject the proposal in a polite way that does not infuriate the American side,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported.
According to the daily, President Michel Aoun has recently presided over a technical meeting that was attended by his adviser Salim Jreissati, Presidency Director General Antoine Choucair, Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s representative Butros Assaker, the head of the army’s hydrographic dept. Afif Ghayth, Lebanese Petroleum Administration member Wissam Chbat and the lawyer Maroun Zein.
“The committee studied the proposal without reaching a decision, but it left its meetings open to further consultations,” sources from the meeting told al-Akhbar.
“The dominant inclination within the committee is to reject Hochstein’s proposal, seeing as it does not fully grant the possible Qana field to Lebanon and rather leaves a pocket under the Israeli enemy’s sovereignty, which would create a problem between the state and some domestic forces that totally reject any form of engagement in what they consider to be normalization platforms,” the sources added.
Informed sources meanwhile warned that accepting the U.S. proposal would represent a “scandal.”
“It is like a maritime ambush aimed at preoccupying the Lebanese side with studying proposals whose unviability is known by the Americans,” the sources said.
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