US envoy Tom Barrack is heading to Lebanon this week, and according to reports he plans to tell officials this will be the last time, and that Lebanon has “one last chance” to fully disarm Hezbollah and enter into direct negotiations with Israel.
While this is in keeping with Barrack’s rhetoric, the narrative has several obvious problems, including that the last time he was in Lebanon (only last week), he informed them that Israel had rejected a Lebanese proposal for direct negotiations on the grounds that they didn’t want to commit to ending daily attacks on Lebanon.
Barrack threatens an Israeli invasion of Lebanon several times a month of late, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Israel is already deploying ground troops into Lebanon and attacking them regularly, both of which the existing ceasefire is meant to preclude.
US Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack | Image from Reuters
US envoy Morgan Ortagus is in Lebanon Monday, and her meetings centered heavily on trying to get Israel to actually comply with the ceasefire they agreed to back in November, and which the US is meant to help oversee. Parliament speak Nabih Berri pushed for more monitoring of ceasefire violations, while Lebanese President Joseph Aoun insisted that southern villagers should be allowed to rebuild their homes after they were destroyed by Israel last year.
That too seems to be a non-starter, however, as Israeli officials were quoted in the media saying there is “no reason” for the Lebanese to try to rebuild any of the destroyed villages, because Israel will just destroy them again.
The Israeli plan, such as it is, is to outright depopulate southern Lebanon, creating what is being called a “Trump Zone” which will be occupied by the US military and where subsidized industry and permanent Israeli military bases will replace the existing towns and villages. Several questions are unanswered, including who would be working in this industry since the plan includes expelling the entire population.
Barrck’s own threat to stop visiting Lebanon and for the US not to do anything to protect them from Israel may similarly feel empty, as his visits have consistently proven embarrassing for the US at any rate, and the US has objectively not done anything to prevent ongoing Israeli attacks. Threats for Israel and/or Syria to invade and conquer Lebanon outright have similarly been so regular that him not visiting and creating a new scandal may ultimately feel like a relief, if nothing else.
