According to Al Jazeera, the United States has proposed a proposal for a southern Lebanon as an incentive for the Lebanese government to continue its efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
Thomas Barrack, the US envoy to the Middle East, showed little else but hints of financing during his Tuesday visit to Lebanon.
The Gulf, the US, and Lebanon will work together to create an economic forum that will provide a source of income, Barrack told journalists.
After last year’s Israeli war on Lebanon, experts speculated that the idea might be based on similar regions in Jordan and Egypt, two nations that have peace agreements with Israel.
A regional and domestic push to disarm the Lebanese organization has grown since the war, which was primarily waged against Hezbollah, and the relatively new Lebanese government, which took office in January and is under US and Israeli pressure, has declared its intention to do so.
Hezbollah’s demise is under increased pressure.
Israel and Hezbollah engaged in a conflict that started on October 8, 2023, and continued until a ceasefire on November 27 that Israel has repeatedly broken without any results.
During the war, Israel was able to assassinate many of Hezbollah’s leaders, which was unfortunate because of its weak military.
Hezbollah is a member of the Iran-backed “axis of resistance,” which suffered additional troubling effects in the wake of Bashar al-Assad’s fall in Syria in December and Israeli-backed attacks on Iran in June, causing Hezbollah to lose regional support.
Hezbollah’s popularity outside its core constituency has declined over the past 20 years due to its role as the only Lebanese force capable of repelling Israel due to its support of al-Assad’s regime in Syria and its support of counterrevolutionary forces during the 2019 Lebanese uprising.
Many of its political allies have shifted their support for Hezbollah’s disarmament, including the Free Patriotic Movement and former presidential candidate Sleiman Frangieh.
Hezbollah’s domestic opposition said it was in favor of its disarmament because it would shift Lebanese state’s control over the country.
Hezbollah is now on the back foot with its opponents demanding disarmament and being removed from its position as Lebanon’s hegemon.
Hezbollah has previously criticized the government and rejected the idea of disarmament.
In a speech on August 25, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem declared, “We will not abandon the weapons that honor us nor the weapons that protect us from our enemy.”
He continued, “It cannot be trusted that Lebanon’s sovereignty will survive if this government operates in its current form.”
Trauma that the war left behind
In a war that it carried out more than five attacks on Lebanon for every attack Hezbollah or an ally launched at Israel, Israel killed more than 4, 000 people and internallydisplaced more than a million.
Israel has continued to occupy at least five of the southern Lebanon areas despite the ceasefire’s requirement that it withdraw there. It also continues to occupy and to destroy villages there.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon during the fighting, forcing thousands of people to flee for their lives. Thousands of people are still unable to return home as a result of Israel’s use of intensive bombing and white phosphorus.
According to Lebanese political analyst Karim Emile Bitar, “people in south Lebanon are still traumatized by the recent war,” putting pressure on the US economic zone proposal to be accepted.
He continued, “Many Arabs, Muslims, and the Global South do not think that the US is an honest broker.”
Analysts claimed Barrack was attempting to pressure the government to continue with the organization’s demise by putting pressure on the people of Lebanon, especially those who support or are affiliated with Hezbollah.
According to Barrack, “We have 40, 000 people who Iran pays to fight.” What will you do with them, exactly? Take their weapon and say, “Good luck planting olive trees, by the way”?
According to some media reports, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Barrack in Paris first discussed the concept of a state-owned industrial area in southern Lebanon. The idea was that state-owned Lebanese factories would be set up in the area near Israel’s border.
Other details are not as detailed. The lack of specifics makes it difficult to imagine what a monetary zone would entail, according to an Al Jazeera analyst.
Hezbollah: Political Economy of the Party of God, authored by Joseph Daher, noted that both Jordan and Egypt have what is known as qualifying industrial zones (QIZs), which are constructed following the Oslo Agreement of 1993 with Israel.
Goods produced must contain at least some Israeli input in order to qualify for a QIZ. However, many Lebanese would still vehemently reject the fact that Jordan and Egypt also have normalized relations with Israel.
Experts also criticize these economic zones harshly.
They operate as isolated enclaves that are disassociated from local communities, which can cause serious environmental effects, according to Yasser Elsheshtawy, an adjunct professor of architecture at Columbia University in New York and author of Temporary Cities: Resisting Transience in Arabia.
They frequently play a role in workers’ rights abuses because they are typically prohibited from starting unions, he added.
No participation
Many analysts doubt whether such a prosperous project would gain the support or trust of local workers or residents despite its possibility.
According to Lebanese analyst and writer Michael Young, “I don’t see any desire or buy-in.” There will be buy-in if it ever succeeds, but all of this is too soon.
According to analysts, southern Lebanon’s residents don’t accept the US as a trustworthy actor or as a partner for Lebanon’s interests.
Qassem Kassir, a Lebanese political analyst believed to be close to Hezbollah, said, “The idea is rejected because there is no trust in America.”
Many Lebanese will find it difficult to believe that the US is acting in their best interests after a brutal war with Israel, which is a close US ally and largest recipient of military aid.
According to Bitar, “the economic zone] could provide oxygen and support a struggling economy.” However, it still must overcome a number of challenges, with psychological resistance the most pressing one being today. There isn’t enough trust, either.
Israel has attacked its neighbors on numerous fronts over the past 23 months, including in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria, with the US remaining silent.
According to Daher, “the US has not been pressing Israel to stop its violation of human rights, particularly in the past year and a half,” Daher said.
“Quite the opposite – it has been supporting them.”
On social media and other platforms, Hezbollah supporters from Lebanon, many of whom reside in the area where the economic zone is proposed, have publicly expressed their grave disapproval of US intentions.
Some have accused the Lebanese government of acting in the interests of the US and Israel.
There are few other political options, according to analysts, besides accepting what the US and Israel are proposing, given the lack of trust in US plans for the region.
“Western regions of the population are being subject to this US-Israeli hegemony imposed upon them as a result of the aftermath of the [2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel] and its devastation,” Daher said.
Source: Aljazeera
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