“Lebanon refused to give Trump a gift.” The United States hoped that the demarcation negotiations would not lead to a tangible result

Elie Youssef wrote in the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper under the headline “Lebanon refused to facilitate the border negotiations as a gift to Trump”: “US sources said they had expected from the beginning that the negotiations to be opened” hastily and recklessly “between the Lebanese and the Israelis to demarcate the maritime borders between them would not lead to any tangible result.

Those circles, which were in contact with the US State Department team that sponsored the launch of those negotiations, added that they informed the team not to rush into launching such negotiations a month before such important US elections, to achieve a “political victory” that cannot be spent on any equation. New, if the electoral results are unfavorable for an expired administration.
Those circles reiterated that the lack of reading of the mindset of the Lebanese side led to a miscalculation of the reasons that could be an incentive for the Lebanese “to accept any arrangement in light of their need for a way out of their suffocating crisis. economic “. In fact, it became clear on the ground that it does not concern the ruling class in Lebanon, not close or far, while the country is under the control of an armed party that carries a non-Lebanese agenda in every way.

And those circles added: “It seems clear that the Lebanese negotiators will not present a free (gift) to the outgoing Trump administration, after losing the election, and prefer to present it to the incoming Biden administration, in light of Iran’s stakes. on the possibility of its success in restoring what can be restored, whether it is related to the possibility of reviving. The nuclear agreement or the end of economic sanctions.
And those circles considered that the Lebanese side by escalating its conditions to determine the borders of the Lebanese maritime space, its objective may not only be to torpedo the current negotiations, but to make the other party tighten on how to respond to these requests in light of the need for the Trump administration to achieve victory in the last hours of his reign. This would leave the incoming Biden administration in a weaker position if it wanted to continue sponsoring the negotiations between the Lebanese and Israeli parties. “Read the full article. Press here.