US envoy Tom Barrack declared himself “unbelievably satisfied” with Lebanon’s reply to his recent demand to fully disarm every single faction within the country. Since Hezbollah already made clear that was going to be a no, Barrack’s delight was somewhat surprising, though his comment came without a single mention of what was actually in the reply.
While the 7-page response wasn’t made public, we do have the details of what it contained, and effectively it contained none of the things the US demanded. The response included a reiteration of its commitment to eventually control all the arms in the country, but without any specificity about disarming groups in five months as Barrack sought.
The bulk of the response was to seek the implementation of the November ceasefire, which is nominally still in place. It asked for the US to “play an active role” in ending Israeli strikes on Lebanon, and to ensure Israeli ground troops withdraw from Lebanese territory.
The US and France are meant to be the guarantors of the ceasefire, but while France has intermittently faulted Israel for its constant attacks, the US has effectively been mum on the issues, and Israel has claimed the US gave them a green light to remain.
Lebanon is seeking the Israeli pullout not just from the military outposts they built since the ceasefire, but from Shebaa Farms as well. Israel occupied the Shebaa Farms in 1967 during their war with Syria, and claimed it was part of Syria and they intended to keep it. They annexed it in the early 1980s, though that is not recognized by international law.
Another key point of the response was a call to renew the mandate of the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, the UNIFIL. Last month the US indicated they were considering vetoing the renewal of UNIFIL the next time it came up, and Israel endorsed that suggestion.
The response also sought to have Arab countries sponsor talks between Lebanon and Syria. This seems important right now because reportedly there are talks going on between Israel and Syria right now over the occupied Golan Heights, and the proposals are centering on Syria agreeing Israel can keep some of the Golan in return for Syria being allowed to take over parts of northern Lebanon.
Barrack emphasized in further comments that Israel is “not parasitic” and has “no desire to take over.” Israel has not responded to the latest comments but DM Israel Katz has repeatedly ruled out withdrawing from the southern Lebanon outposts.
