The absence of House Speaker Nabih Berri from the meeting of Presidents Michel Aoun and Najib Mikati in Baabda confirmed the lack of a unified stance among the three branches of Lebanese authority regarding the official response concerning the southern maritime border delineation. This response is awaited by the U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein, who is returning to Beirut today or tomorrow for answers regarding his previous proposals.
According to "Anbaa," the position that will be conveyed to Hochstein is that Lebanon does not accept anything less than line 23 with the full "Qana" field, and that a quick return to indirect negotiations in Naqoura is necessary to reach an agreement. They emphasized that Israel's commencement of gas extraction from the "Karish" field before agreeing on the demarcation poses a risk to international peace and security. Berri's excuse for not attending was attributed to the fact that the negotiation file has become the responsibility of President Aoun, and hence there is no need for a meeting to issue a position on behalf of the three presidents, especially since Berri considers himself the "father of the framework agreement" upon which the indirect negotiations were based, delegating the task of defining the maritime borders to those talks.
Parliamentary circles view President Aoun's purpose in this meeting as an attempt to showcase his control over this file, which these circles believe is unnecessary given that Berri had already relinquished it. Following sources interpret Berri’s stance regarding the Baabda meeting as an implicit announcement of the dissolution of the alliance with Aoun and his team, which had developed between the two parties through "Hezbollah" during the parliamentary elections, the election of the council's president, vice president, and committee leaders and members. This indicates that this alliance will not apply to other upcoming entitlements, from government formation to the election of a new president.
The three presidents converge at maritime line 23 as a dividing line between Lebanon and the Israeli entity. It seems that the House Speaker does not wish to become embroiled in the ongoing debates concerning line 29 or others, especially after the President declared that negotiations of an international nature are solely his responsibility.
