Lebanon's expectation: Hochstein's roadmap for post-ceasefire calm

"Al-Akhbar" learned that the US  envoy Amos Hochstein, who left for Cyprus on Monday night and moved from there on Tuesday to Israel, kept one of his prominent assistants in Beirut to continue meetings with the presidents Nabih Berri and Najib Mikati, and through them with Hezbollah. 

This article is originally published in, translated from Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.

The sources said that Hochstein told some of those he met that he would involve them in his communications with the Israeli leadership and that he has great confidence in the imminent announcement of a truce in Gaza.

"He wants to exploit it to initiate negotiations with Lebanon to stabilize the truce that will inevitably occur after the ceasefire in Gaza," the source added.

Meanwhile, Mikati announced on Tuesday that negotiations to establish calm in Lebanon, if a truce is reached in Gaza, will start during the next Ramadan and that the contacts will move to a new level.

It was learned that Beirut is waiting for Hochtsein to return later (in case a ceasefire is declared in Gaza) with details of his plan to establish sustainable calm on the Lebanese front and that Lebanon is waiting for steps from him that Israel would commit to on multiple levels to talk about Lebanese guarantees for calm. 

Sources reported that officials in Beirut informed the US envoy that Lebanon is waiting for a "convincing practical plan."

What surrounded Hochstein's visit, his third to Beirut since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation was contrary to its focus on "containing" developments, where diplomacy raced with field realities on both sides of the borders between Lebanon and occupied Palestine.

Although many interpretations were given to the content of the written statement he read after he met with Berri, attention was drawn to his reference to the non-automatic withdrawal of the Gaza truce on the southern Lebanese front, understood as an implicit "threat" to push the resistance to cease its operations against the Israeli enemy. 

However, the details of what he said behind the scenes confirmed his attempt to frame the negotiation phase broadly, asking Lebanon for assurances that Hezbollah would not resort to escalation while waiting for the outcome of the negotiations on Gaza. 

It was noteworthy that this time, he dropped some confrontational conditions from his basket, such as specifying kilometers for Hezbollah's withdrawal away from the borders.

According to "Al-Akhbar" sources, Hochstein's main meeting was with Berri, which lasted about an hour and a half, during which the US envoy began with an estimate "where he appeared decisive," affirming that negotiations regarding Gaza would lead to a ceasefire soon, without specifying a date. 

However, his main question aimed to attempt to explore Hezbollah's and Lebanon's official behavior in case a ceasefire was not reached, indicating that he knows Hezbollah's position is determined regarding keeping the southern front open for support as long as the aggression on Gaza continues.

Prominent sources revealed that "Hochstein was keen in all his conversations to clarify that his public statements carried no threats," reiterating that he "had previously proposed ideas for a solution, and today he presents steps for implementing the mechanism in case of a ceasefire in Gaza." 

These steps, according to the sources, are based on: "First, verifying the ceasefire, second, activating a plan to deploy large forces of the Lebanese army in all border areas (without specifying any depth), and third, committing to non-armed appearance for anyone other than the army (without mentioning Hezbollah's withdrawal from border villages)."