Trump Says US-Lebanon Flights Can Resume, Pledges Help For That Country After Meeting Its President

 

 

Washington : President Donald Trump pledged to help Lebanon "a lot" during a White House meeting on Tuesday with the country's leader, Joseph Aoun, who came to push for long-term calm after months of war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

The U.S. has championed peace in Lebanon but has been increasingly distracted by new escalation of the war in Iran, which has destabilized much of the Middle East. Trump says he now has little interest in talks with Iran's leaders to end the war.

 

In the meantime, Lebanon and Israel have held rare direct talks mediated by Washington.

"It's been a very badly treated place and country, and we're going to have it properly treated and treated with the respect it deserves," Trump told Aoun during a meeting which wrapped the Lebanese leader's four-day visit to Washington. "We're gonna help it a lot," he said of Lebanon, without giving concrete details.

Hours later, Trump made the surprise announcement that he'd allow American carriers to resume direct flights to Lebanon for the first time in 40-plus years after the US suspended the route.

 

"I 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," Trump said on social media after Aoun had left the White House.

It is highly unlikely U.S. carriers will want to fly into Lebanon in the near future, however, as the situation in Iran disrupts larger air traffic and questions Hezbollah's influence in parts of the country remain. Direct flights between the U.S. and Lebanon were suspended in 1985 by the Reagan administration following the hijacking of TWA Flight 847.

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.

 

Trump said of Israel's army withdrawing from Lebanon, "They're in the process of doing that," but didn't elaborate.

Aoun told Trump, "Your vision is peace," calling it Trump's "legacy." He also said Trump was a "great president." Trump responded by joking, "I do agree with that" and said Aoun was handsome and "knows how to get to me," adding, "Now he can have anything."

 

Lebanon and Israel announced a "framework agreement" on 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's implementation was to begin in small "pilot zones."

The U.S. State Department said Monday that operations in three villages of one pilot zone had begun. Two of them — Froun and Srifa — 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.

The Israeli military said it would "adjust its force posture in one of the pilot areas in order to enable the Lebanese Armed Forces to carry out their mission," without specifying the location.

 

The Lebanese army said it began deploying troops in Zawtar al-Gharbieh.

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's establishment.

Trump noted Tuesday of Lebanon, "There's a Hezbollah problem" and suggested that he personally could speak with that group if Aoun wanted him to. He also again floated the idea of having Syria intervene to fight Hezbollah — though he didn't fully commit to that.