BEIRUT — Ahead of the upcoming visit of Morgan Ortagus, President Donald Trump’s deputy special envoy for West Asia, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is visiting Beirut.

An informed source said the Palestinian ambassador to Beirut, Ashraf Dabbour, indicated that President Joseph Aoun had sent a letter in advance expressing his hope that Abbas would not hold any press conferences, lest he issue any uncalculated or provocative statements that could lead to political tension in Lebanon.

Reportedly, Abbas will meet, during his three-day visit, with Lebanese officials to discuss the mechanism for the Lebanese state to extend its full control over its entire territory, particularly over the Palestinian camps, and to dismantle the military infrastructure of Palestinian factions.

Meanwhile, the date of Ortagus’ visit is likely to take place at the end of next week or early next month in parallel with the circulated provocative statements she made, as usual, that a “huge wave of transformations and changes is about to sweep [West Asia] all away.”

According to informed sources, Ortagus will carry with her a list of harsh American conditions to push Lebanon to join the normalization agreements with Tel Aviv, as a condition for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and a complete cessation of the ongoing U.S.-led Israeli attacks.

The sources added that Ortagus’ visit will resolve the issue of Palestinians in Lebanon, whether in terms of disarming them, as is happening in Syria, or in terms of pushing the Lebanese authorities to resettle them and stop treating them as refugees.

Lebanon’s Supreme Defense Council recently warned Hamas against using Lebanese territory to launch rockets towards the occupied Palestinian territories.

According to the information being circulated, the Lebanese security services have asked the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which already suffers from organizational fragmentation, to coordinate with the remaining Palestinian factions to agree on a mechanism for handing over weapons to the Lebanese state, as the current situation does not permit the Lebanese army to enter the camps without prior coordination.

However, 77 years after the catastrophe of their forced displacement to Lebanon, Palestinian refugees were hoping that Abbas would address their humanitarian and living tragedy, especially amid the systematic freeze on relief services long provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is subject to American and European blackmail and pressure. 

The problem is not regulating Palestinian weapons in Lebanese camps, because the majority of displaced Palestinians have suffered greatly under Fatah’s seditious policies. 

Rather, the main concern is related to their natural civil rights, which President Joseph Aoun promised to preserve: Will the Lebanese state finally commit to preserving the dignity of the Palestinian people on its lands, and stop marginalizing them and treating them as sixth-class citizens?

Services are a natural human right, and the Palestinian people are merely guests in Lebanon until their return to Palestine is achieved, and must not be resettled, whatsoever!

It is shameful that Mahmoud Abbas is nothing but a political bargain favoring the Israeli occupation regime.