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President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0pledged to help\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0\u201ca lot\u201d during a White House meeting on Tuesday with the country\u2019s leader, Joseph Aoun, who came to push for long-term calm after months of war between Israel and the Iran-backed\u00a0Hezbollah\u00a0militant group.<\/p>\n
The U.S. has championed peace in Lebanon but also has been increasingly distracted by a new round of escalation with the\u00a0war in Iran, which has destabilized much of the Middle East. Trump says he now has little interest in talks with Iran\u2019s leader to end the war \u2014 at least for now.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Lebanon and Israel have held rare direct talks mediated by Washington. Aoun\u2019s White House visit was the first by a Lebanese president since 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a very badly treated place and country and we\u2019re going to have it properly treated and treated with the respect it deserves,\u201d Trump told Aoun during a meeting which wrapped up the Lebanese leader\u2019s four-day visit to Washington. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna help it a lot,\u201d he said, without giving concrete details.<\/p>\n
Hours after the meeting, Trump made the surprise announcement that he\u2019d allow American carriers to resume direct flights to Lebanon for the first time in 40-plus years after the US suspended the route.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am hereby directing my Administration to allow all U.S. airline carriers to fly directly to Lebanon so that Americans can easily visit this beautiful land,\u201d Trump said on social media after Aoun had left the White House.<\/p>\n
Direct flights between the U.S. and Lebanon were suspended in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan\u2019s administration following the hijacking of TWA Flight 847.<\/p>\n
That announcement aside, Lebanon hopes the Washington talks result in Israeli troops withdrawing from large swaths of southern Lebanon that they currently occupy, and the Lebanese military receiving support to assert full control in areas where Hezbollah militants had held sway.<\/p>\n
Trump said of Israel\u2019s army fully withdrawing from Lebanon, \u201cThey\u2019re in the process of doing that. They\u2019re in the process of redeploying,\u201d but didn\u2019t elaborate.<\/p>\n
Aoun told Trump, \u201cYour vision is peace,\u201d calling it Trump\u2019s \u201clegacy.\u201d He also called Trump a \u201cgreat president.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump responded by joking, \u201cI do agree with that\u201d and said Aoun was handsome and \u201cknows how to get to me,\u201d adding, \u201cNow he can have anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lebanon and Israel\u00a0announced a \u201cframework agreement\u201d\u00a0on June 26, setting a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw and for the disarmament of Hezbollah, which for decades had a strong presence in southern Lebanon. The deal\u2019s implementation was to begin in small \u201cpilot zones.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. State Department said Monday that operations in three villages of one pilot zone had begun. Two of them \u2014 Froun and Srifa \u2014 were not under Israeli military control to begin with, and the Lebanese army was already present there, while Israeli forces were at one point in a part of the third village, Zawtar al-Gharbieh.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said it would \u201cadjust its force posture in one of the pilot areas in order to enable the Lebanese Armed Forces to carry out their mission,\u201d without specifying the location.<\/p>\n
The Lebanese army said it began deploying troops in Zawtar al-Gharbieh on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The June 26 agreement also lays out steps toward an eventual Israel-Lebanon peace agreement. The two countries have never had formal diplomatic ties and have been nominally in a state of war for nearly 80 years after Israel\u2019s establishment.<\/p>\n
Trump noted Tuesday of Lebanon, \u201cThere\u2019s a Hezbollah problem\u201d and suggested that he personally could speak with Hezbollah if Aoun wanted him to. He also again floated the idea of having\u00a0Syria intervene to fight Hezbollah\u00a0\u2014 though he didn\u2019t fully commit to that.<\/p>\n
Such a concept would be highly unpopular in Lebanon and potentially embarrass Aoun.<\/p>\n
It remained unclear whether Israeli troops actually withdrew from any territory on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
A Lebanese military official said the Lebanese army was unsure whether Israeli forces had been in Zawtar al-Gharbieh before Tuesday, but that they were in adjacent areas and would open fire on anyone who tried to enter.<\/p>\n
An Israeli military official said Israeli forces had not been in Zawtar al-Gharbieh \u201cfor quite a time\u201d and \u201cwe didn\u2019t withdraw from there.\u201d Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with military regulations.<\/p>\n
Still, the pilot zones got off to a rocky start.<\/p>\n
The Lebanese military said Israeli troops fired Tuesday near an area where they were deploying. The Israeli military said Lebanese soldiers had entered an area that was not part of the pilot zone and Israeli troops fired warning shots in the air.<\/p>\n
The Lebanese army disputed this, saying its soldiers were within the pilot zone when Israeli troops opened fire. It called on Israel to resolve disputes through \u201cestablished coordination and communication channels, instead of resorting to aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abed Ezzeldine, mayor of Zawtar al-Gharbieh, was waiting for word from the Lebanese military on whether it\u2019s safe for displaced residents to check on their homes.<\/p>\n
He said the civilians would go in, but \u201conly to check it out and see how things are and then we will leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t stay because the infrastructure is completely damaged and houses have been leveled. They (the Israelis) have bulldozed the roads,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Lebanese military last week increased its presence in some of the areas expected to be included in the pilot zone, with troops patrolling and setting up checkpoints.<\/p>\n
Aoun on Sunday met with U.S. Secretary of State\u00a0Marco Rubio, who said Washington will continue to endorse the Lebanese agreement and support its full implementation. Rubio warned that Lebanon will \u201cnever be fully at peace\u201d as long as the Hezbollah issue is not resolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you replace Hezbollah? You defeat and replace them with a government that is strong enough to be the sole force of arms in the country,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n
Skeptics in Lebanon fear that a military confrontation with Hezbollah could lead to a civil war.<\/p>\n
Government officials have urged investment in the country\u2019s battered infrastructure to empower the weakened state, which Rubio echoed.<\/p>\n
Israeli officials, meanwhile, have said they plan to keep troops long-term in a \u201csecurity zone\u201d in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah has dismissed the U.S.-brokered direct talks and instead backed Washington\u2019s talks with its key ally and patron Iran to end their war, which includes ending the war in Lebanon as a condition.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s government came to power on a reformist platform in early 2025, vowing to disarm all non-state groups, including Hezbollah, which it blames for dragging the country into another war with Israel in March, when the militant group fired several rockets toward northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran.<\/p>\n
Beirut\u2019s leadership, however, has condemned Israel\u2019s subsequent ground invasion and massive aerial campaign in the country, which has killed over 4,000 people and displaced 1.2 million others.<\/p>\n
While grappling with stark political opposition from Hezbollah and allies within the deeply divided country, Lebanon\u2019s leadership insists that Israeli withdrawal and international financial support for Lebanon\u2019s cash-strapped army are crucial for a sustainable security solution.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell\u2019Orto and Erin Cunningham in Jerusalem, Abby Sewell in Beirut and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Trump #gonna #Lebanon #moves #restore #direct #flights #fourdecade #hiatus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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