| US envoy Ortagus met with the three presidents Aoun, Berri and Salam and also visited the South |
|
US envoy Ortagus met with the three presidents Aoun, Berri and Salam and also visited the South
08/02/2025
(See translation in Arabic section)
Sydney-Middle East Times Int'l: US Deputy Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus confirmed from Beirut on Friday her country's opposition to the participation of "Hezbollah" in the Lebanese government, after its military "defeat" by Israel, stressing that the party's era of "terrorizing" the Lebanese "is over." Ortagus began her Lebanese meetings yesterday with a meeting with President Joseph Aoun, and will meet today with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam. Information indicated that Berri will respond to her to any American position in an appropriate manner and will explain to her the details of the violations of the ceasefire agreement, and that the American mission is only to compel the Israeli occupation to stop the violations and withdraw from the villages it occupies.
Ortagus also traveled to the south yesterday afternoon, accompanied by the head of the ceasefire supervision committee, US General Jasper, and officers from the Lebanese army, with the aim of reviewing the field situation and the army’s deployment in the south. The US Deputy Envoy to the Middle East, after her first meeting with President Joseph Aoun, came out to announce her happiness that her first visit outside the United States after assuming her duties was “to Lebanon and I am grateful to President Aoun and the government and there is a large number of the Lebanese community in America,†adding: “I conveyed to President Aoun that I have never seen this enthusiasm about the future of Lebanon before and this is important because Hezbollah was defeated by our ally Israel,†which she thanked for that. She stressed that Hezbollah had been defeated militarily, saying: “The era of its terror in Lebanon and the world is over. Hezbollah will not be a party to the Lebanese government.†She continued: “We will ensure that Iran will not reach nuclear weapons and will not cause instability in Lebanon and the region.†|
