The United States has floated a proposal for an economic zone in southern Lebanon in what analysts tell Al Jazeera is a far-fetched and poorly thought-out plan to incentivise the Lebanese government to push on with disarming Hezbollah.The US envoy to the Middle East, Thomas Barrack, floated the economic zone during a visit to Lebanon on Tuesday but provided few details other than hints at financing.“We, all of us – the Gulf, the US, the Lebanese – are all going to act together to create an economic forum that is going to produce a livelihood,” Barrack told journalists.Experts said the idea could be based on similar zones in Jordan and Egypt, two countries with peace deals with Israel that Lebanon would be hard-pressed to replicate after last year’s Israeli war on Lebanon.After the war, fought primarily against Hezbollah, a regional and domestic push to disarm the Lebanese group has grown, and the relatively new Lebanese government, which took office in January and is under US and Israeli pressure, has declared the intention to disarm the group.The pressure to disarm HezbollahIsrael and Hezbollah fought a war that started on October 8, 2023, but intensified in September last year until a ceasefire on November 27, which Israel has repeatedly broken with no repercussions.He …
