Berri: Barrack has told Lebanon that Israel has rejected a US proposal for negotiations

Speaker Nabih Berri said Monday that the proposed course of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel has collapsed due to Israel's rejection of cooperation with a U.S. proposal in this regard.

In remarks to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper Berri added that the ceasefire monitoring committee has become the only track at the moment.

Berri also revealed that U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has informed Lebanon that Israel has rejected a U.S. proposal calling for a negotiations track that would see Israel halt its attacks for two months and end with Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Lebanese land and launching a course for border demarcation and security arrangements.

Barrack had last week conveyed to the Lebanese side an initiative calling for President Joseph Aoun, Berri and PM Nawaf Salam to meet with him to discuss an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon within two months and a halt of violations, signaling indirect negotiations to resolve the crisis, and Lebanon's response was positive, Asharq al-Awsat said.

Berri added that "an important development has occurred in the work of the ceasefire committee, with it now meeting every two weeks, after it used to meet intermittently and at distant times in the past."

Berri added that he is "half pessimistic and half optimistic" about these developments.