Trump aide meets Lebanon’s president in Beirut amid efforts to disarm Hezbollah
Lebanese officials describe talks with US deputy Mideast envoy Ortagus as ‘positive’ and ‘constructive,’ say meetings focused on southern Lebanon, implementation of ceasefire
US deputy special envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus met Saturday with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Beirut, and the two discussed the fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah in talks that were described by Lebanese officials as “positive.”
The visit came as Israel and Lebanon have agreed to hold talks on settling their land border dispute, following the war between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US has urged the Lebanese government to disarm the terror group to ensure calm is maintained along the border.
The United States chairs a committee, which also includes France, that is tasked with overseeing the ceasefire that ended more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war, between Israel and Hezbollah.
Senior Lebanese officials said Saturday’s talks with Ortagus were “positive,” and the president’s office said that the two discussed “south Lebanon, the work of the international monitoring committee, and the Israeli withdrawal” from Lebanese territory, characterizing the talks as constructive.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s office, in a statement, also said the discussions with the envoy were “positive.”
Ortagus and Salam discussed the Lebanese army’s work in implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and formed the basis of the November truce, his office said.
The resolution says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and called for the disarmament of all non-state armed groups. It went largely unenforced for long years, enabling Hezbollah to build up its forces along Israel’s border to an unprecedented scale prior to the recent war.
Ortagus also met on Saturday with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, and army chief Rodolphe Haykal.
On her first visit in February, Ortagus sparked anger among Hezbollah supporters by saying the group had been “defeated by Israel,” declaring “the end of Hezbollah’s reign of terror.”
The Iran-backed terror group was heavily weakened during the war with Israel but remains active.
Last month, Ortagus told Lebanese TV channel Al-Jadeed that the US and France had set up working groups that would address the border disputes between the two countries, as well as Israel’s continued presence in south Lebanon.
“We want to get a political resolution, finally, to the border disputes,” Ortagus had said.
Last month, an Israeli official said that Jerusalem is aiming to establish full diplomatic relations with Beirut, adding that the talks could begin as soon as April.
“The goal is to reach normalization,” said the official.
However, a few weeks after news broke that Israel was looking to normalize ties with Lebanon, the Lebanese prime minister said that “no one in Lebanon wants normalization with Israel” and that “everyone opposes it.”
Israel and Lebanon do not recognize each other and have officially been in a state of war since Israel’s founding in 1948.
A November 27, 2024, truce in Lebanon largely halted more than a year of hostilities initiated by Hezbollah, including two months of full-blown war during which Israel sent in ground troops.
The fighting began with attacks by the terror group on the Jewish state on October 8, 2023, in support of ally Hamas, which had invaded Israel from Gaza a day earlier. Persistent rocket fire from Lebanon displaced some 60,000 Israeli civilians.
In September of 2024, Israel launched a major offensive, killing most of Hezbollah’s top leaders and devastating its capabilities.
Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory since the truce agreement took effect, saying it is acting against Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire.
In February, Israel withdrew all its forces from southern Lebanon, except from five strategic points, saying it had received a green light from the US to remain at those posts and citing the need to prevent Hezbollah from returning to the area and threatening Israel.
Lebanon’s army has been deployed in areas the Israeli military has withdrawn from.
The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
The Times of Israel Community.