Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State of Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker hoped that the current U.S. administration gives crisis-struck Lebanon priority.
In an interview with Al-Hadath TV on Tuesday, Schenker addressed the halted maritime border negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.
“The Lebanese side was cooperative at the beginning of the negotiations with Israel, but it came back and retreated and its demands were crippling during the negotiations with Israel,” he said.
The former official, who is a Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute think tank, said negotiations had reached a dead-end a few months ago when a disagreement emerged regarding Lebanon’s maritime claims.
Schenker stated that despite the worsening economic situation, the Lebanese government “is not in a hurry, and the Lebanese people are experiencing a real tragedy due to the practices of their government.”
“Hezbollah does not care about the interest of the Lebanese people, and the Lebanese authority was negligent in its dealing with the negotiations with Israel the same it did with the port explosion,” he added.
Schenker also hoped that the Biden Administration considers Lebanon a priority, stressing that Hezbollah should “remain classified as a terrorist organization.”
