Pro-Hezbollah paper voices pessimism after 'escalatory' Doha statement

Lebanon’s pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday criticized a statement issued by the five-nation group on Lebanon as “escalatory” and “a declaration of a new tutelage” over Lebanon.

The statement “resembled a mourning of the French initiative and a near-termination of the mandate granted by the U.S. to Paris in the presidential file,” al-Akhbar said.

The statement perhaps “declared the end of French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian’s mission,” the daily added.

“Informed sources have questioned whether Le Drian will visit Beirut again, seeing as his visit has become unnecessary, and should he make it this month as had been decided, it will be marred by a lot of tension,” the newspaper said.

“The threats contained in the statement contradict with the positive developments that the region has recently witnessed and will have negative responses and results in the Lebanese scene, pushing the political forces, especially Hezbollah, to further inflexibility,” al-Akhbar added.

Informed sources meanwhile told the daily that Le Drian told the conferees that “there are major disagreements among the political forces and impossibility to reach consensus without an international intervention or an agreement sponsored by the participating countries.”

“The U.S. and Saudi sides voiced objection against the French envoy’s call for dialogue among the Lebanese with Arab-international sponsorship, considering that it will not lead to a result and might end up in a place targeting the system and leading to drastic changes in it, something that Saudi Arabia strongly opposes,” the sources said.

The sources added that the closing statement was “a Saudi formulation par excellence” and that “it was Riyadh’s representative in the meeting who proposed the idea of imposing sanctions before it was endorsed by the Americans and the French.”

“The Qataris and the Egyptians agreed without supporting the idea,” the sources said.