Aboul Gheit to Asharq Al-Awsat: Sharm el-Sheikh Summit Opens Permanent Arab Dialogue with Europe

FILE PHOTO: Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Arab League's secretary general, gestures as he speaks at the Rome Mediterranean summit MED 2018 in Rome, Italy. Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Arab League's secretary general, gestures as he speaks at the Rome Mediterranean summit MED 2018 in Rome, Italy. Reuters
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Aboul Gheit to Asharq Al-Awsat: Sharm el-Sheikh Summit Opens Permanent Arab Dialogue with Europe

FILE PHOTO: Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Arab League's secretary general, gestures as he speaks at the Rome Mediterranean summit MED 2018 in Rome, Italy. Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Arab League's secretary general, gestures as he speaks at the Rome Mediterranean summit MED 2018 in Rome, Italy. Reuters

Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that the first Arab-European summit held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh reflected the desire of the two sides to work together and to build bridges.
 
In an exclusive interview with Asharq Al-Awsat from Sharm el-Sheikh, Aboul Gheit said the joint statement, to be issued at the end of the summit, would be brief, “but it will point to a minimum of consensus between Arabs and Europeans on political and international issues.”
 
The high-level representation at the summit “reflects the interest and desire between the Arab and European worlds in building bridges of cooperation and mutual understanding,” he affirmed.
 
The two-day summit, which kicked off on Sunday, is held under the title of “Investing in Stability.”

“The slogan of the summit is a great message on the internal and international levels, and a signal from the European side that the stability of the Arab countries is now required,” Aboul Gheit stated.
 
Asked about the Arab-European priorities to be tackled at the summit, the Arab League chief said: “Discussions will touch on all international and regional issues in order to formulate a position that supports peace and stability and maintains common interests.”
 
Among the main topics, he cited fighting terrorism and drying up its resources, ending the presence of militias, in addition to emigration and climate change.
 
On whether Yemen will get its share of political talks, he said: “Everyone is calling for the implementation of the Sweden agreement, the adoption of a political solution and the provision of humanitarian support,” underlining Arab support for the legitimate power in Yemen.
 
Aboul Gheit, however, noted that it would be difficult for the summit participants to draw a roadmap for the implementation of resolutions on Yemen, “because there is a divergence of views, for example disagreements between France and Italy; and the same applies to Syria.”
 
As for the communique to be issued at the end of the high-level meeting, he said: “The document will be very brief and was discussed by the representatives of the EU, the Arab League and Egypt, the host country.”
 
Arab-European cooperation is on track, according to the Arab League secretary-general, who also pointed to many agreements between the two sides.



Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach’

AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
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Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach’

AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon

The former US special envoy, Amos Hochstein, said the maritime border agreement struck between Lebanon and Israel in 2022 and the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hezbollah at the end of last year show that a land border demarcation “is within reach.”

“We can get to a deal but there has to be political willingness,” he said.

“The agreement of the maritime boundary was unique because we’d been trying to work on it for over 10 years,” Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“I understood that a simple diplomatic push for a line was not going to work. It had to be a more complicated and comprehensive agreement. And there was a real threat that people didn’t realize that if we didn’t reach an agreement we would have ended up in a conflict - in a hot conflict - or war over resources.”

He said there is a possibility to reach a Lebanese-Israeli land border agreement because there’s a “provision that mandated the beginning of talks on the land boundary.”

“I believe with concerted effort they can be done quickly,” he said, adding: “It is within reach.”

Hochstein described communication with Hezbollah as “complicated,” saying “I never had only one interlocutor with Hezbollah .... and the first step is to do shuttle diplomacy between Lebanon, Lebanon and Lebanon, and then you had to go to Israel and do shuttle diplomacy between the different factions” there.

“The reality of today and the reality of 2022 are different. Hezbollah had a lock on the political system in Lebanon in the way it doesn’t today.”

North of Litani

The 2024 ceasefire agreement requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to take full operational control of the south Litani region, all the way up to the border. It requires Hezbollah to demilitarize and move further north of the Litani region, he said.

“I don’t want to get into the details of other violations,” he said, but stated that the ceasefire works if both conditions are met.

Lebanon’s opportunity

“Lebanon can rewrite its future ... but it has to be a fundamental change,” he said.

“There is so much potential in Lebanon and if you can bring back opportunity and jobs - and through economic and legal reforms in the country - I think that the future is very bright,” Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Hezbollah is not trying to control the politics and remember that Hezbollah is just an arm of Iran” which “should not be imposing its political will in Lebanon, Israel should not be imposing its military will in Lebanon, Syria should not. No one should. This a moment for Lebanon to make decisions for itself,” he added.