WASHINGTON.- The president of the United States, Donald Trump, authorized this Tuesday the resumption of direct flights by US airlines to Lebanon, suspended for more than four decades.
“After meeting with the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, who has done an extraordinary job transforming his country, I hereby direct my administration to allow all American airlines to fly directly to Lebanon, so that Americans can easily visit this beautiful land,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
The United States suspended direct flights to Lebanon in 1985 after a TWA plane was hijacked by Lebanese Islamist militants. A US Navy diver was killed and dozens of US citizens were held hostage for more than two weeks.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the announcement, which followed Trump’s White House meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
The move “represents a significant opportunity to improve travel and connectivity between Lebanon and the United States, and to support the Lebanese economy,” Salam said.
This Tuesday, Trump praised the Lebanese president and said that he is “very respected.” “The relationship is very good. I think Lebanon has been a very mistreated country for a long period of time and we are going to ensure that it is treated appropriately, with the respect it deserves,” he said.
Lebanon asks to maintain support
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Trump to maintain his support for the Lebanese Armed Forces. He warned that the South could fall back into the chaos it suffered during the 1970s if it does not have the support of Washington, this within the framework of deployment operations in the pilot areas under the agreement with Israel.
“The Lebanese Armed Forces are the backbone of security and stability. We need to support them,” he stressed during a meeting with the Republican magnate in the Oval Office.
He recalled that the first Lebanese institution that collapsed in 1975 during the war civilian was the Army, resulting in “the emergence of many local militias.”
Aoun maintained that this allowed the Palestinians to rule the south of the country and launch attacks against Israel. “We don’t want to see that again. All we ask is that you continue to support the Army,” he said, alluding to the fact that It is not only political support for the troops, but also material support.
The Lebanese president’s office issued a statement in which they highlighted that, during the meeting with Trump, they discussed “the urgent need for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territories,” a step that would allow the Lebanese state to “fully extend its sovereignty, exclusively with its forces, and advance the implementation of the joint tripartite framework.”
In addition, they addressed “the strengthening of US support for the Lebanese Army, the development of cooperation between both countries in all areas, in addition to supporting the economic recovery and reconstruction process, and the promotion of US investments in Lebanon.”
“President Aoun has presented to President Trump the catastrophic consequences of the latest war against Lebanon, and the human and economic losses and severe damage to infrastructure throughout the Lebanese territories that it left in its wake,” he added.
The meeting between both leaders takes place on the same day that the Lebanese Army denounced that Israel opened fire during deployment operations in the pilot areas in the first operation in the south to take control of towns included in the agreement between Lebanon and Israel, facilitated by the United States.
The Israeli Army defended that it only fired in the air and that the Lebanese troops entered non-agreed areas, urging Beirut to “act according to the understandings and agreed spaces.” “Any deviation without prior coordination could endanger its forces,” he said.
In the framework of the same meeting, Trump affirmed that Washington will take measures if the Houthi rebels, a group backed by Iran, finally establish a blockade of Saudi ports in the Red Sea. “If something like that happens, we’ll take care of it,” he said.
