Massad Boulos, the Lebanese-American billionaire who helped garner Arab votes for US president-elect Donald Trump has said he may visit Beirut in the coming two weeks, amid speculation that he could become the key mediator in the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire talks, succeeding the Biden administration's Lebanon point man Amos Hochstein.
Speaking to Lebanese broadcaster LBCI on Thursday, Boulos said his first visit will be to Beirut as soon as possible, possibly "in the coming days or two weeks."
But asked whether he would visit as an advisor to Trump, Boulos said it was too soon to speak about this, without completely denying it.
"The transition has begun, it hasn’t even been 48 hours, so these details about specific [Trump administration] appointments are not yet clear...it’s a bit too soon for that. But hopefully, in the coming days and weeks, everything will become clearer, and we can make announcements," he said.
Boulos is the father-in-law of Donald Trump's daughter and fourth child Tiffany.
In the event he is picked to be the Trump administration’s key negotiator to lead efforts in ending the Israeli war on Lebanon, Boulos, who acted as one of Trump's key emissaries to the Arab-American community in the 2024 presidential race, would replace the current mediator Hochstein.
Earlier reports from Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV had attributed to Boulos comments that he would be appointed as the key mediator.
But speaking to the Times of Israel newspaper, Boulos said the broadcaster had "wrongly attributed" these claims to him, and the story was later taken down from Al Jadeed’s website.
It is unclear if Boulos' potential appointment would change anything in the talks or fall in Lebanon’s favour.
Washington claims it has been trying to secure a long-lasting deal between Beirut and Tel Aviv. In his last visit to Lebanon, Hochstein – who is expected to stay on the job until Trump’s inauguration in January – said the outgoing Biden administration wanted to end the conflict completely, "once and for all."
Cautious optimism in Lebanon
Appearing on several Lebanese television channels in recent weeks, Boulos has reiterated and sounded confident that Trump would live up to the promises he made to the Lebanese-American community in the run-up to the 5 November election, where he said he would end the war in Lebanon and bring about regional peace, but did not specify how.
Boulos touched on this again in his interview with LBCI on Thursday, saying the US-Lebanese diaspora was the only Arab community Trump directly addressed in his campaign.
"He means every word he said in the letter," said Boulos, referring to a signed vow from Trump to end the violence.
In the Middle East, the businessman says, "Trump’s policy is permanent peace…this is why he said [in the letter] we do not want wars every five to 10 years."
Lebanese have interpreted this as a plan by the Trump administration to secure a peace deal between Lebanon and Israel, technically at war since the State of Israel was founded in 1948 following the Nakba.
While some people in Lebanon think it makes no difference who governs the White House for the next four years, others have voiced some - albeit hesitant - optimism that Trump’s decisiveness could help facilitate a ceasefire.
So far, Israel has been stubborn with its stances. Hochstein had conveyed tough Israeli demands during his last visit to Lebanon, demands that analysts said were almost impossible to implement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701 – which ended the 2006 war but was not properly enforced – was no longer the main sticking point.
But Lebanese officials continue to voice commitment to UNSCR 1701, and the country’s government this week approved a decision to recruit 1,500 soldiers who will later be deployed in southern Lebanon as part of a first-stage plan to stabilise the border area.
There are plans to recruit and deploy thousands more for a post-war scenario.
Speaking to The New Arab’s sister site, Lebanese ministerial sources have said caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati was continuing his efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement "as quickly as possible."
These sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Lebanon was in favour of indirect negotiations with Israel, but not before Israel ceases its attacks on Lebanon first.
Regarding reports that Hochstein could visit Lebanon again, these sources said it could happen before Trump’s inauguration, but they had no confirmation.
"It is likely that Hochstein's return [to Beirut] will not happen unless there are positive developments and tangible progress in the talks, especially since he now knows the Lebanese position, while the obstruction is Israel," the sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.