With the momentum of the "legitimate mandate" granted to him by the Secretary-General of "Hezbollah" to abandon Line 29 and proceed with negotiations with the American mediator under the threat of bombing the Greek ship to prevent Israel from extracting gas from the Karish field, which led to the summoning of the Greek Foreign Ministry's acting ambassador to Lebanon in Athens yesterday to denounce this threat... President Michel Aoun is preparing to receive Ambassador Amos Hochstein next Tuesday after Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Sabra hosts a dinner in his honor on Monday evening to ease the negotiating atmosphere with the American administration.
While Aoun sought to showcase his grip on the negotiation helm by inviting Presidents Nabih Berri and Najib Mikati to a trilateral presidential meeting today at the Baabda Palace, sources following up on the related communications told "Nidaa Al-Watan" that Berri preferred to keep himself out of the "Bacardi Flock," refusing to participate in this meeting "as long as the file is in Aoun's hands." Thus, no need for such a meeting or for issuing a joint statement on behalf of the three presidencies, especially since Berri considers himself the "father" of the framework agreement he "sponsored the signing of and upon which indirect negotiations commenced." Therefore, "the Speaker's position is clear in this regard and he may reaffirm it in a statement issued from Ain al-Tineh, reaffirming commitment to every comma and period in this agreement without addition or omission."
Consequently, it has been decided that today's Baabda meeting will be limited to the attendance of Presidents Aoun and Mikati along with "a group of advisors" to give it the character of "a presidential working meeting aimed at preparing the negotiation ground before the arrival of the American mediator," as the sources indicated, revealing that "the caretaker Prime Minister had rejected the proposal that he should invite the Council of Ministers to discuss the position on the maritime border negotiations, preferring to keep the matter within the framework of coordination between him and the President."
