Barrack tells the Lebanese to continue patiently on the path of dialogue
The Lebanese-American envoy is in Beirut for the third time to relaunch the ceasefire agreement. Hezbollah's disarmament in Lebanon is at impasse. For the diplomat, the weapons issue is a "purely internal" issue and no guarantees can be obtained from Israel. He told the Lebanese and the Maronite Patriarch that the United States will not abandon Lebanon. The diplomat is now expected to travel to Israel.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Tom Barrack, the grandson of Greek Catholics from Zahle (Bekaa Valley), came to diplomacy from a business background. As his country's ambassador to Turkey, he has been tasked by President Trump to act as a special envoy for Syrian and Lebanese affairs.
His recent visit to Lebanon was his third in two months, to receive an official response to a US proposal to disarm Hezbollah, which he had presented during his second visit. Unlike previous visits, the diplomat this time broadened the scope of his meetings to include various religious and political leaders, and to secure the support of various Lebanese parties for his mission.
Contrary to Mr Barrack's expectations, the government did not provide a timetable or concrete steps for Hezbollah's disarmament. Although Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri insisted that it was essential to give something to the Shia community, even if it was only a green light for reconstruction, this argument did not seem to convince the US envoy, who reiterated that his administration was not in a position to ask the Israelis for guarantees, that he had no leverage over the Jewish state, and that the issue of Hezbollah's weapons was “purely internal”.
The central point of his mission, he explained, was to see how to restart the process of disarming Hezbollah, after the hostilities agreement that came into effect on 27 November 2024 failed. “It's not working. You have a point of view, they have a point of view, let us give you our point of view of where it is, and how we can fix it," he said. Before leaving, the US envoy urged the Lebanese to hurry because Israel will not wait forever, adding that it is Israel, not the US, that will decide when time has run out.
Disarmament ends
For Israel, this agreement provides for the dismantling of Hezbollah's military network, financed by Iran, throughout Lebanese territory, "starting" with the region south of the Litani River.
However, “There is no question of handing over our weapons to Israel," said Hezbollah Secretary General, Naim Qassem. Instead, the party is bargaining its cooperation, asserting that it has fulfilled this first part of the 27 November agreement, by handing over its positions throughout this region to the Lebanese army, in accordance with Resolution 1701.
The pro-Iranian party claims that Israel violated the agreement by continuing to occupy five observation posts inside Lebanese territory, by continuing its strikes against Hezbollah fighters and positions, and systematically preventing the reconstruction of a string of border villages that were razed to the ground.
According to a report based on data from the Lebanese Ministry of Health and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, around 280 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanese territory since the end of November, including civilians. Moreover, local statistics indicate that nearly 100,000 housing units were destroyed by Israel during its 13-month war with Hezbollah.
Israel, the Druze, and the shadow of a “Second Lebanon”
Received Wednesday at the patriarchal seat of Bkerké by Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai, after extensive meetings earlier in the day with President Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and Parliamentary Speaker Berri, Mr Barrack declared that he was playing the role of "honest intermediary" to prevent the differences between Israel and Hezbollah from ending in "devastation”.
According to a Church source who requested anonymity, Tom Barrack is adjusting his mission based on a statement made by the Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu after the strikes on Suwayda and Damascus on 14 July.
"We will not allow the creation of a second Lebanon,” Netanyahu said, referring to the Syrian region that borders with Israel. “We are also committed to protecting the Druze population ... through intense action. I hope we will not have to go further,” he said.
According to the source, "it is clear that the Hezbollah nightmare continues to haunt Israel; and the best proof of this is that the return movement to the settlements in northern Israel has not yet started."
In Lebanese political circles, it is believed that Mr Barrack and his administration's calculations take three facts into account: first, Hezbollah's decision is not being made in Lebanon, but in Tehran, which is seeking new allies in Moscow and Beijing; second, Hezbollah is crafty, and that even in the event of a total Israeli withdrawal, it will retain its weapons to continue influencing internal Lebanese politics, as evidenced by its harassment of the UN Interim Force (UNIFIL) via the "population"; finally, it is believed that it is possible that on this particular point, Hezbollah and the Amal movement have divergent positions, a fact Mr Berry reportedly confided to Mr Barrack.
Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea criticised Lebanon's official response to US envoy Tom Barrack on Tuesday. He accused the authorities of providing a response to the US envoy "without consulting the government, which, according to the constitution, is responsible for administering the country's public policies, and without consulting parliament, which is primarily responsible for administering the country's politics, and supervising the government's work."
Regarding Syria, Mr Barrack's mission at present boils down to convincing Ahmad al-Sharaa to heed Israeli "messages," notably the strikes against Suwayda and Damascus, which prevented the Syrian army from taking control of Suwayda. Left to its own devices, Syria could end up becoming another Libya or another Afghanistan, warn the Americans, who are calling for a reduction in the presence of Islamists and Salafists among the ruling circles, and an opening to pluralism and moderate Sunni movements.
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