US special envoy visits Lebanon to push for Hezbollah disarmament
US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda on Saturday, marking her second visit to Lebanon since taking office.
The president's office said in a post on X that talks between Ms Ortagus and Mr Aoun focused on the situation in south Lebanon and along the border with Syria, as well as the urgent need for financial and economic reforms to curb corruption, News.Az reports citing The National.
Ms Ortagus did not address journalists after leaving the palace. She has also met Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
Her visit comes amid escalating tension between Lebanon and Israel, despite a ceasefire agreement reached last November between Israel and the Lebanese Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Ms Ortagus was expected to press Lebanese officials for a clear timetable for the disarmament of the group, and to push for the beginning of talks between Israel and Lebanon on the demarcation of their border, currently marked by the Blue Line drawn by the UN in 2000.
On Friday, at least three people were killed in Israeli air strikes on an apartment in Lebanon’s southern city of Sidon, far from the border. The strikes killed Hamas official Hassan Farhat, as well as his son and daughter. Since the tenuous ceasefire was agreed between Israel and Hezbollah, to end a year-long war, the Israeli military has continued to bomb south Lebanon. It also struck Beirut's southern suburbs known as Dahieh twice.
Under the ceasefire terms, Hezbollah is required to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south. Israel, for its part, was supposed to withdraw across the Blue Line but has missed two deadlines and continues to hold five positions inside Lebanon that it considers “strategic”.
Israel and Hezbollah interpret the ceasefire agreement differently. Israel says that terms of the truce demand that Hezbollah fully disarms, not only in southern Lebanon but across the entire country. Hezbollah maintains that the agreement only requires it to disarm south of the Litani River.
A senior Lebanese military source told The National last month that Israel was expected to continue its violations of the ceasefire agreement as part of a broader pressure campaign on Beirut.
Mr Berri had previously accused Israel of attempting to lure the country into normalising relations. He along other Lebanese officials, including the prime minister and foreign minister, say that Lebanon rejects any normalisation of relations with Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said at a press conference in Paris on Thursday that Israel is interested in normalising relations with Lebanon in the future, although he acknowledged such a prospect “may seem premature from a Lebanese perspective”.
Last month, Israel and Lebanon agreed to start indirect talks to resolve longstanding disputes over the land border between the two countries.
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