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Trump meets Aoun on withdrawal
President Donald Trump met with 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.
Trump told reporters that “They’re in the process of doing that,” when asked about a timeline for Israel’s withdrawal, while Al Jazeera reported that Israel has not pulled back from any area it has occupied since March.
The Al Jazeera account said the US State Department announced the establishment of the first “pilot zone” under a Lebanon-Israel framework, but that the three towns announced in the first pilot zone were not under Israeli control, so Israel did not withdraw from them.
Al Jazeera also said Israel has been systemically razing entire villages in south Lebanon, with Israeli officials declaring the objective of erasing Lebanese border towns out of existence.
In the same meeting, Aoun praised the US-brokered framework agreement and said it conditions Israeli withdrawal on disarming Hezbollah, while Trump renewed a suggestion that neighbouring Syria should intervene militarily in Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah.
Talks, flights, and pilot zones
Trump told reporters he was open to speaking directly with Hezbollah, saying “I would speak to Hezbollah. I speak to everybody,” while Aoun told Trump he had asked for political support and backing for the Lebanese army as the “backbone of security and stability”.
The Al Jazeera report said Hezbollah has been highly critical of Aoun’s decision to engage in direct talks with Israel and the framework that Lebanon agreed to, while the Lebanese presidency said Aoun stressed the urgent need for “Israel's total withdrawal” from Lebanese territory.
Le Monde reported that Trump announced on Tuesday, July 21, the resumption of direct commercial flights between the United States and Lebanon for the first time since 1985, quoting Trump on Truth Social: “I instruct my administration to authorize all American airlines to operate direct flights to Lebanon”.
Le Monde also said the Lebanese army deployed in the village of Zaoutar El-Charkiyé under the framework agreement’s “pilot zones” and later accused Israeli forces of firing “near its troops” in this locality.
NBC News said the US State Department announced Monday that operations in three villages of a “pilot zone” had begun, naming Froun and Srifa as not under Israeli military control and Zawtar al-Gharbieh as where Israeli forces were present at one point.
What’s at stake next
The sources tied the meeting’s diplomacy to the framework agreement signed on June 26, which Lebanon and Israel described as setting a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon and for the disarmament of Hezbollah.
“President Donald Trump has promised that the United States will “help” Lebanon as he met with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun amid continued occupation of the south of the country by Israeli forces”
NBC News said Lebanon hopes the talks will result in Israeli troops withdrawing from large swaths of southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese military to receive support to assert full control in areas where Hezbollah militants had held sway, while Reuters and other coverage in the same reporting described the pilot-zone implementation as beginning without details on what that entailed.
Al Jazeera reported that Israel has killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon since the all-out regional war broke out earlier this year, and said the targeting included hundreds of medics and journalists as it invaded the country.
NBC News said Lebanon’s leadership insists that Israeli withdrawal and international financial support for Lebanon’s cash-strapped army is crucial for a sustainable security solution, and it quoted Secretary of State Marco Rubio warning that Lebanon will “never be fully at peace” as long as the Hezbollah issue is not resolved.
Against that backdrop, the Al Jazeera account said Aoun did not mention Israeli abuses next to Trump and instead heaped praise on the US leader, while Trump said he would “look into” reports about Israeli forces firing near Lebanese troops in a pilot zone.
