Hezbollah reiterated saying: “The decision is mine in the maritime border demarcation file,” therefore, it is not the President of the Republic’s decision, nor the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, not even the Prime Minister and the Parliament. It can be said that the party dethrone those in power, although Nasrallah said that he accepts what the Lebanese state agrees on, and that the party will not interfere in this file.
The clearest position was expressed directly by the head of the “Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc”, MP Muhammad Raad. But Hezbollah had begun before Raad’s statement to send indirect messages, mainly to the President of the Republic, which appeared through the remarkable appearance of the head of the negotiating delegation, Brigadier General Bassam Yassin, who exposed the issue of Aoun’s retreat from line 29 to the line 23. Then former Prime Minister Hassan Diab issued a statement criticizing the President of the Republic, followed by a speech for the Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to Al-Ahram newspaper, in which he ruled out ending the border demarcation file because of Israel’s position, as Berri said.
The party may have left to the President of the Republic a margin of freedom in the file of maritime border demarcation in coincidence with the positive developments in the Vienna negotiations. But it is certain that the party will not hand in this file except according to its timing and decision. Raad’s last words reflect that the file of border demarcation is in the party’s hands alone, and that it will not be a bargaining card for any other team, especially that this card is the last one of the conflicts with Israel. Therefore, the party cannot neglect this file before agreeing on regional and future arrangements for the situation in Lebanon.
Information reveals that Hezbollah had a primary role in putting pressure on the President and the Foreign Minister to re-preserve Lebanon’s message to the United Nations, which states Line 29. The Foreign Minister, through Lebanon’s mission in New York, sent a message that the United Nations withholds from Lebanon its right to document its claim for its rights, in a scenario similar to Shebaa Farms and the Blue Line.
