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UN Representative: The Line Project Will Strengthen Environmental Governance

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announcing a zero-carbon city called "The Line" to be built at NEOM in northwestern Saudi Arabia, January 10, 2021. (SPA)
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announcing a zero-carbon city called "The Line" to be built at NEOM in northwestern Saudi Arabia, January 10, 2021. (SPA)
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UN Representative: The Line Project Will Strengthen Environmental Governance

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announcing a zero-carbon city called "The Line" to be built at NEOM in northwestern Saudi Arabia, January 10, 2021. (SPA)
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announcing a zero-carbon city called "The Line" to be built at NEOM in northwestern Saudi Arabia, January 10, 2021. (SPA)

A chief representative to the United Nations said that The Line project - recently announced by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - establishes a global human-friendly approach that strengthens environmental governance.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Eng. Faisal Al-Fadl said: “It is traditionally known that cities and most of the major urban centers in the world were founded as natural centers of housing before growing into dynamic and self-sufficient hubs, acting as economic, commercial and administrative magnets in their remote regional areas.”

He continued: “In 1990, there were 10 megacities with 10 million people or more, and in 2014 the number rose to 28 major cities, with about 453 million people... Perhaps the rapid growth of cities in the developing world, coupled with increased rural migration to urban areas, has led to the steady growth in the number of major cities, dominated by the rise of slums, diseases and socio-economic disparity of their residents.”

Fadl, a principal representative to the United Nations and an environmental consultant for NGOs, emphasized the need for the global community to adopt a more ambitious approach to human and environmentally-friendly cities.

He said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently announced the 170 km-project, “which forms the backbone of NEOM, to lead the path of modern development of future cities.”

According to Fadl, this change does not necessarily require a large amount of funding. Rather, it necessitates the adoption of the correct approach and political will, as presented by the Crown Prince with the The Line project.

“If we want cities to be an important goal in the new global development plan, the civil society must be a basic partner and citizens must engage in the development and preservation of their city,” he underlined.

He revealed that a United Nations census showed that more than half of the world’s population currently lives in urban areas, while by 2050, this number will increase to 6.5 billion individuals, or about two-thirds of all humanity.

“Sustainable development cannot be achieved without making a major change in the method of building and managing urban space,” he stated.

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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
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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.