Report: US asks Lebanon to implement political-security roadmap within 5 months

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack carried to Beirut a five-page political-security roadmap that Washington wants Lebanon to implement within five months, a media report said on Tuesday.

“The first step would be the consensus of the three presidents, Joseph Aoun, Nawaf Salam and Nabih Berri, on monopolizing arms, all arms, in the hand of the Lebanese state and sending this file urgently to Cabinet for unanimous approval,” Lebanese news portal Asas Media reported.

“Barrack gave Lebanon a two-week deadline to officially approve the monopolization of arms,” the report said, adding that Lebanon is asked to “officially approve the arms monopolization article in Cabinet, in the presence of the president, the prime minister and all Cabinet members, including Hezbollah’s ministers.”

In return, Washington would guarantee the demarcation of Lebanon’s borders with Israel and Cyprus and Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon should the arms monopolization step be approved in Cabinet, the report said.

“As for the North Litani area, Israeli airstrikes would stop after the mechanism of monopolizing arms in the hands of the state gets verified and after Hezbollah acknowledges that it has become a political rather than a military party,” Western diplomatic sources told Asas Media.

“The mechanism will be devised by Lebanese authorities and the ceasefire committee, which will oversee the various stages,” the report added.

Al-Akhbar newspaper meanwhile reported that Barrack told Lebanese officials that he would return to Beirut within three weeks to get an "answer" from them.

"Barrack stressed that his president Donald Trump is very serious in dealing with the Lebanese file and that the Lebanese must offer something serious regarding the file of Hezbollah's arms, telling officials that he must get a clear answer," al-Akhbar added.

The daily also revealed that Lebanese officials are mulling a specific solution to agree on it and offer it to the U.S. envoy when he returns, adding that Aoun's team has proposed a "synchronous" suggestion calling for Israel's withdrawal and the halt of its attacks in return for the Lebanese state's coordination with Hezbollah over a "major step related to arms, not necessarily south of the Litani."