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Trump meets Aoun
President Donald Trump met Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House on Tuesday and promised the United States would “help” Lebanon amid continued occupation of the south of the country by Israeli forces, while offering no timeline for Israel’s withdrawal.
Trump told reporters, “They’re in the process of doing that,” referring to Israeli redeployment, but the Al Jazeera account says Israel has not pulled back from any area it has occupied since March.
Aoun praised the US-brokered framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, saying he wanted “to thank President Trump, really, and his team for the historic visit and for the historic achievement that we did together by signing the framework.”
Al Jazeera also said Israel has killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon since the all-out regional war broke out earlier this year, while AP reported Trump pledged to help Lebanon “a lot” during the meeting without giving concrete details.
The talks came as the US State Department announced the establishment of the first “pilot zone” under a Lebanon-Israel framework, with Al Jazeera adding that the three towns announced in the first pilot zone were not under Israeli control.
Flights and Hezbollah talk
Trump also authorized direct flights between the US and Lebanon, telling reporters and later posting that he was directing his Administration to allow all US airline carriers to fly directly to Lebanon so that Americans can easily visit.
AP said the route could potentially resume for the first time in 40-plus years after the US suspended the route, while Al Jazeera reported Trump renewed his suggestion that neighbouring Syria should intervene militarily in Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah.
On Hezbollah, Trump told reporters, “I would speak to Hezbollah. I speak to everybody,” and AP said Trump suggested he personally could speak with that group if Aoun wanted him to.
Aoun, for his part, told Trump that “Your vision is peace,” calling it Trump’s “legacy,” and AP reported Aoun also pressed for long-term calm after months of war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.
The meeting also unfolded against pilot-zone friction, with AP describing confusion over whether Israeli troops actually withdrew from any territory and noting that a Lebanese military official said the Lebanese army was unsure whether Israeli forces had been in Zawtar al-Gharbieh before Tuesday.
Framework stakes for Lebanon
The framework agreement being tested in pilot zones is described as conditioning Israeli withdrawal on disarming Hezbollah, with AP saying the June 26 agreement set a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw and for the disarmament of Hezbollah.
AP reported that the US State Department said Monday that operations in three villages of one pilot zone had begun, naming Froun and Srifa as not under Israeli military control to begin with and describing Zawtar al-Gharbieh as a village where Israeli forces were at one point.
Al Jazeera added that Aoun did not mention Israeli abuses next to Trump and instead hailed the framework’s “ultimate objective of ending the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel forever,” while also saying Israel has been systemically razing entire villages in south Lebanon.
The stakes for Lebanon’s security and sovereignty were central to the meeting, with Al Jazeera quoting Aoun’s praise for the US-brokered framework that conditions Israeli withdrawal on disarming Hezbollah and AP describing Lebanon’s hope that Washington talks result in Israeli troops withdrawing from large swaths of southern Lebanon.
AP also said Lebanon hopes for the Lebanese military to receive support to assert full control in areas where Hezbollah militants had held sway, while Al Jazeera said the US president did not announce any concrete policies towards Lebanon as he spoke to reporters alongside Aoun at the White House on Tuesday.
