Trump to Aoun: Lebanon has suffered for too long, and we will help it greatly
Washington – Beirut – Agencies: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with his American counterpart, Donald Trump, in Washington, where Trump stated his desire to provide “significant” assistance to Lebanon as an implementing framework agreement with Israel, brokered by Washington, begins to take effect. Sources revealed that during their meeting in the Oval Office, President Aoun presented his American counterpart with a comprehensive executive plan aimed at monopolizing weapons within the Lebanese state and ending Hezbollah’s independent military status, within an integrated framework for implementing Lebanese-Israeli understandings and restoring state authority over its entire territory. According to Al Arabiya, citing sources who wished to remain anonymous, the document submitted by Aoun constitutes the executive roadmap for the Lebanese-Israeli Framework Agreement signed on June 26, outlining the security and military steps required from both the Lebanese and Israeli sides, as well as the expected role of the United States in supporting its implementation.
According to sources, the document proposes that the Lebanese Army begin deploying in several model villages in southern Lebanon, coinciding with the repositioning or gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from those areas. Under the plan, the military institution would be tasked with ensuring these areas are free of Hezbollah fighters, its military structure, and weapons depots, with security and military responsibilities gradually transferring exclusively to the Lebanese Army, thereby ensuring no manifestations of armed activity outside state authority reemerge. The plan also calls for the dismantling of all non-state armed groups, with a particular focus on ending Hezbollah’s military structure, considered a fundamental step for implementing the Framework Agreement and stabilizing the southern border.
Prior to the meeting, President Aoun indicated his intention to ask his American counterpart to pressure Israel to withdraw from the south. In the Oval Office, Aoun urged Trump to “continue supporting” the Lebanese Army. Meanwhile, Trump announced to journalists that he is ready to negotiate with Hezbollah. “I can talk to any party, and if President Aoun wants me to talk to Hezbollah, I will,” he said. Without committing to an Israeli withdrawal, Trump remarked that “Lebanon has been treated badly for a long time,” praising its merits. Addressing reporters in the Oval Office alongside his Lebanese counterpart, he added, “We will help him. We will help him a lot.”
Trump also announced that he would allow the resumption of direct flights by American airlines to Lebanon. Direct flights between the two countries had been suspended in 1985 in response to the hijacking of a plane and the hostage-taking of 39 American passengers by two Lebanese men demanding the release of hundreds of prisoners held in Israel. Aoun thanked Trump in English for the “historic achievement” of signing the Framework Agreement, adding that its “ultimate goal is to permanently end the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel.”
Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam confirmed yesterday from the town of Zouk Mikael, the day after the Lebanese Army’s deployment there, that Beirut would continue to “mobilize” all efforts to secure a complete Israeli withdrawal from the south under the Framework Agreement signed by the two countries. After planting the Lebanese flag in the square in Zouk Mikael, which he reached in the morning accompanied by the army, Salam said, “We will continue to mobilize all our political and diplomatic efforts to ensure the complete withdrawal from all Lebanese territories.”
The Lebanese Army deployed on Tuesday in Zouk Mikael, one of the “experimental areas” under the Framework Agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel under American auspices last month. The Israeli army had been stationed on the outskirts of the town in the Nabatieh region and continues to keep forces in several neighboring towns. Clarifying his remarks from Zouk Mikael, Salam stated that “alongside the completion of the army’s deployment, we will continue opening roads, clearing rubble, and securing basic services, enabling our people to return safely and with dignity to their homes and villages.”
According to the United Nations, more than 700,000 displaced persons have returned to their homes in recent weeks, out of a total of over one million who fled their areas following the outbreak of war between Hezbollah and Israel.
