U.S. President Donald Trump pledged on Tuesday to support Lebanon’s efforts to restore stability during Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s White House visit—the first by a Lebanese head of state in 17 years.
“We are going to solve a lot of problems. We’ve already solved some of them for Lebanon,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “As you know, there’s a Hezbollah problem, but we’ve done some things that I think the world will take notice [of].”
The meeting came as Lebanon, with U.S. mediation and Israeli cooperation, moves to implement a framework aimed at forcing the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group out of Southern Lebanon. On Monday, Israel began withdrawing from the first “pilot zones,” where the Lebanese Armed Forces are deploying to replace Hezbollah and reestablish government control before broader Israeli withdrawals are considered.
“We have some very concrete plans already in store” for the Lebanese Armed Forces, Trump said, “with others going in and helping. But they’re also becoming much more self-sufficient, and we will be speaking about that.”
Trump said Lebanon has been historically “mistreated,” with Aoun praising the U.S.-backed peace and security framework as “a historic achievement.”
Aoun said Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri supports the security framework. Berri, leader of the Amal Movement and a longtime Hezbollah ally, has often been viewed by analysts as a key power broker whose backing is critical to advancing U.S.-Lebanon cooperation and Israeli-Lebanese peace.
Asked about Lebanon’s longstanding law criminalizing contact with Israelis, Trump said he would encourage Beirut to repeal it as part of broader efforts to normalize relations with the Jewish state and draw Lebanon into the Abraham Accords.
“I think you’re going to see a lot of countries joining pretty soon,” Trump said of the U.S.-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states reached during his first term.
Turning to Iran, Trump said Tehran “desperately” wants to resume talks with Washington, even as U.S. military strikes against the Islamic Republic have continued following the breakdown of the June Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries.
