Israel boycotts Mechanism meeting

Israel did not send any representative to the meeting of the U.S.-led Mechanism ceasefire committee on Wednesday, which marked the first such boycott since the creation of the panel, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.

“The committee’s chair, U.S. general Joseph Clearfield, was meanwhile absent for the second time and was substituted by an officer from his assistant team,” the daily said.

“The committee’s meeting produced nothing, in a repetition of the previous meeting that was held on December 7,” al-Akhbar added.

Sources in Beirut linked to the U.S. side meanwhile justified what happened by saying that “the U.S. generals are currently preoccupied with the deployment plans in the region and have no time to follow up on a frozen file.”

“The Americans are not hiding their desire to give up the current framework and they’re discussing with the Lebanese Army the need to overcome the complex of the venue and U.N. participation and to move to fruitful meetings through direct negotiations,” the sources said.