BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Before Lebanon’s government approved a U.S.-brokered deal settling a decades-long maritime dispute with the Zionist regime, the powerful Hezbollah resistance movement had scrutinized the final draft line by line and given a crucial nod of acceptance.
But behind the scenes, the resistance movement was being briefed on the details and expressing its views on the negotiations over the dispute, according to sources familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking, a Lebanese official and a Western source familiar with the process.
An unprecedented compromise between the arch foes, the deal opens the way for offshore energy exploration and defuses one source of potential conflict between the Zionist regime and Hezbollah.
Observers say the deal was all the more significant for the pragmatism shown by Hezbollah.
“The Hezbollah leadership scrutinized the understanding line by line before agreeing to it,” said one of the sources familiar with the movement’s thinking.
Hezbollah has said offshore oil and gas are the only way for Lebanon to emerge from a financial meltdown that has hit all Lebanese hard.
Though Hezbollah says it does not fear war with the Zionist regime, the group has also said it does not seek one with a formidable foe that was defeated after invasions of Lebanon in 1978 and 1982.
An offshore energy discovery - while not enough on its own to resolve Lebanon’s deep economic problems - would be a major boon, providing badly needed hard currency and possibly one day easing crippling blackouts.
Two Hezbollah lawmakers told Reuters the group was open to the idea of a deal as a pathway to alleviate some of Lebanon’s economic woes.
“They had to deal with it pragmatically,” said Sami Atallah, executive director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, describing Hezbollah’s role as critical. “They knew they had the power to cause havoc if they wanted to – but it would have come at such a high cost.”
U.S. proposals were communicated to Hezbollah’s leadership by senior Lebanese security official Abbas Ibrahim, who also met U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, according to the Lebanese official and the Western source familiar with the process.
At one point, Hezbollah conveyed its frustration at the slow pace of the talks to Hochstein via Ibrahim, the Western source said.
Asked about Hezbollah’s role, the head of its media office Mohamed Afif said the state had carried out the negotiations and “we stood behind it”. “Our concern was for Lebanon to secure its rights to its resources,” he said.