Hochstein holds 'positive' talks with Berri amid 'encouraging' signs
A “positive atmosphere” engulfed the meeting that Speaker Nabih Berri held Monday with U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein, informed sources said.
“The two men agreed on a host of encouraging signs, which if respected and implemented on the ground would lead to halting the war in the South between Israel and Hezbollah,” the sources told Annahar newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.
“Hochstein did not carry a written paper containing his proposals, but rather raised old and new ideas involving a halt of military operations, the return of displaced residents to both sides of the border, and halting military activities south of the Litani River, which would eventually lead to discussing a comprehensive agreement over the situation on the border, from the B1 point all the way to the Shebaa Farms,” the sources added.
According to ad-Diyar newspaper, Hochstein told Berri that once a truce is declared in Gaza, he would return to Lebanon to “discuss a blueprint for the implementation of Resolution 1701.”
Al-Akhbar newspaper meanwhile said that the U.S. envoy’s proposals included ideas for “creating an economic support program for the southern areas and pledges that would guarantee the resumption of oil and gas exploration by the global companies.”
Quoting officials who met with Hochstein, the daily said the U.S. mediator stated that Washington “wants, at any cost, to reach a mechanism that would prevent a deterioration of things on the Lebanese front to a major confrontation.”
And as the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper said Hezbollah told Hochstein through Berri that “there won’t be discussions before the Gaza truce,” al-Liwaa daily said Hochstein called for consolidating calm in the South during the expected Gaza truce and maintaining it even if war resumes in the Palestinian enclave.
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