Will Berri announce the framework agreement today? The French initiative is frozen

After waiting more than ten years for the trip to demarcate the land and sea borders between Lebanon and occupied Palestine, with talks led by the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, which ended with an agreement on the negotiating framework imposed by Lebanon Officially as the basis for starting negotiations, Berri is likely to announce this agreement today, two weeks earlier. Since the arrival in Beirut of the US Undersecretary of State, David Schenker. In the last two days, Ain al-Tineh visited the Commander of the International Emergency Forces operating in the south (UNIFIL), Major General Stefano Del Col, and the Special Coordinator of the United Nations Secretary General in Lebanon, Jan Kubi, and shared information that Kubi and Del Col met with President Berri to put the finishing touches. About the deal before it was announced. This announcement means that Lebanon is around the corner from the beginning of the indirect negotiations on the demarcation, under the auspices of the United Nations and the presence of the American mediator, while the negotiations are expected to begin after the visit. by Schenker. Informed sources said that the framework remains the same with respect to the delimitation of the demarcation between land and sea, the care of the United Nations and without a specified time limit, as general principles, with some modifications made to the mechanism of implementation of a way that does not affect the essence of the frame.

The announcement of the agreement means moving from the mandate of spokesman Berri to the leadership of the army, the government and the presidency of the republic, so the army will be the party that represents Lebanon in the negotiations, and will in turn submit reports to the first and third presidencies to see the path of negotiation, in order to make decisions about it. By announcing this agreement, Lebanon will have entered the battle to restore and stabilize rights on land and sea, which is a difficult and complicated process that can take years, especially as Washington is using in parallel the sword of sanctions to pressure the Lebanon and extract concessions from it in this file. It was no accident that the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Berri’s political aide, Representative Ali Hassan Khalil, shortly after reaching the framework agreement (last July), and the Political bureau of the Amal Movement responded to these sanctions by linking between it and the demarcation file. This reality requires Lebanon not to accept US mediation or confront it positively, in light of the US attack on Lebanon and the resistance reaching its climax, imposing severe sanctions, draining the dollar from the country and applying the blockade, and working and lobbying to put Hezbollah on the Worldwide terror list. Neither party at home is allowed to process the negotiation file of the demarcation of the maritime and land borders as a concession card to the United States, either to obtain its consent or to escape the sanctions, because it is one of the basic methods to restore all rights, whether on land on land or throughout the area by sea.

Suspension of the French initiative
On the other hand, and at the government level, there has been no communication movement in the last two days between the political components that have turned off their engines, while everyone awaits an external “stone” to remove the stagnant water. The French initiative is frozen, according to interested sources, pending the end of the administration of President Emmanuel Macron to assess what happened in the last stage, which led to the apology of Ambassador Mustafa Adib for not forming a government and what followed. This calm was violated by a statement from the former heads of government in response to the words of the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in which they confirmed that they did not impose a name or a portfolio. Rather, its role was limited to providing coverage in a transparent and clear manner to implement what was agreed by the parliamentary blocs in the Al-Pinawar Palace. The statement considered that “what is striking in the Hezbollah Secretary General’s narration is that he deliberately provoked a sectarian confrontation between the President of the Republic and the designated Prime Minister, claiming to violate the constitutional powers of the President of the Republic in the interests of the Presidency of the Government and what it represents. The statement believes that “reading the Secretary General of Hezbollah undermines the French initiative, with its economic and financial content, through the approaches of the International Monetary Fund and economic and financial reforms.”
In another context, yesterday the attention was focused on the legislative session that was held at UNESCO, especially after there was a tendency to boycott Christian factions, due to the general amnesty law.

Neither party should treat the border demarcation record as a card to gain approval from Washington or to evade sanctions.

The solution proposed by Berri was to form a parliamentary commission to bring together the opinions of the blocks. However, this matter did not happen and the bill was moved to a session to be held on the 20th of next month, since a quorum was not assured to carry out the afternoon round. This is a session in which Berri said that members of the Supreme Council will be chosen to judge presidents and ministers instead of deputies resigned, “after which I will open a legislative session to approve the amnesty law in case the commission arrives. an agreement”. He continued: “We are afraid to get to a place where we will tell the prisoners that we cannot cure them.” Berri said: “We regret the trend that we have reached, and my suggestion was to reduce the prisons after the outbreak of Corona, and any law had to be passed and not necessarily the one that was on the table.” People sleep in the corridors and the general amnesty bill is not a Quran or a holy Bible.
The Public Power had approved a series of other laws, among which the proposed law aimed at modifying the provisions of article 47 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in terms of establishing the right of detainees to have access to a lawyer during the preliminary inquiries and filming all investigations with audio and video.

Subscribe to «News» on YouTube here