The atmosphere surrounding the visit of American mediator Amos Hookstine to Beirut this Sunday and the resumption of his talks with officials on Monday will overshadow other governmental and non-governmental issues. This is particularly relevant given that preparations and political consultations have intensified in recent hours to coordinate a "unified official position" regarding what Hookstine will bring in response to Lebanon's recent proposal.
According to information conveyed by accompanying sources to "Nidaa Al-Watan," leaked details about the nature of the Israeli response indicate that "Israel welcomes Lebanon's adoption of coordinates along Line 23 for its southern maritime borders, but proposes that in exchange for allowing Lebanon to have the entire Qana field, a meandering line downward towards Hoff be adopted. This means that Israel wants, in return for the area Lebanon will receive from obtaining the Qana field, to receive the same area north of Line 23 by using the meandering line, which allows Israel to encroach on part of Block 8, thereby providing the space needed to facilitate the construction of a gas export pipeline to Europe."
In contrast, the accompanying sources revealed that "the Lebanese response to this proposal will insist on the necessity of returning to indirect negotiations in Naqoura to agree on the technical details of the border line with Israel according to the framework agreement previously reached. This will involve holding successive rounds of negotiations to reach a final agreement between the two sides under the auspices of the United Nations." They pointed out in this context that "the Lebanese direction is to affirm to the American mediator the continuation of positive engagement on the delineation file while recording reservations that should be settled through the indirect negotiations that need to be quickly resumed with the intention of reaching a final solution, away from the maneuvers previously employed by the Israeli side when it exploited the negotiations to waste time until it completed the exploration and drilling process in the Karish field, which is now on the verge of extraction."
