Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach'
The former US special envoy, Amos Hochstein, said the maritime border agreement struck between Lebanon and Israel in 2022 and the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hezbollah at the end of last year show that a land border demarcation 'is within reach.'
'We can get to a deal but there has to be political willingness,' he said.
'The agreement of the maritime boundary was unique because we'd been trying to work on it for over 10 years,' Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.
'I understood that a simple diplomatic push for a line was not going to work. It had to be a more complicated and comprehensive agreement. And there was a real threat that people didn't realize that if we didn't reach an agreement we would have ended up in a conflict - in a hot conflict - or war over resources.'
He said there is a possibility to reach a Lebanese-Israeli land border agreement because there's a 'provision that mandated the beginning of talks on the land boundary.'
'I believe with concerted effort they can be done quickly,' he said, adding: 'It is within reach.'
Hochstein described communication with Hezbollah as 'complicated,' saying 'I never had only one interlocutor with Hezbollah .... and the first step is to do shuttle diplomacy between Lebanon, Lebanon and Lebanon, and then you had to go to Israel and do shuttle diplomacy between the different factions' there.
'The reality of today and the reality of 2022 are different. Hezbollah had a lock on the political system in Lebanon in the way it doesn't today.'
North of Litani
The 2024 ceasefire agreement requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to take full operational control of the south Litani region, all the way up to the border. It requires Hezbollah to demilitarize and move further north of the Litani region, he said.
'I don't want to get into the details of other violations,' he said, but stated that the ceasefire works if both conditions are met.
Lebanon's opportunity
'Lebanon can rewrite its future ... but it has to be a fundamental change,' he said.
'There is so much potential in Lebanon and if you can bring back opportunity and jobs - and through economic and legal reforms in the country - I think that the future is very bright,' Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.
'Hezbollah is not trying to control the politics and remember that Hezbollah is just an arm of Iran' which 'should not be imposing its political will in Lebanon, Israel should not be imposing its military will in Lebanon, Syria should not. No one should. This a moment for Lebanon to make decisions for itself,' he added.
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