Lebanese President Joseph Aoun faces a complicated predicament: Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mohammad Reza Sheibani, has been declared persona non grata. For four months, he has not been permitted to present his credentials, and if he leaves the embassy building where he has barricaded himself, he is expected to be deported to Iran. Yet that did not stop Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa from passing in person in Tehran before the coffin of the country’s former ruler, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint US-Israeli strike. President Aoun even declared that “relations are normal.”
On July 21, the Lebanese president is scheduled to meet Trump at the White House. The meeting has been postponed several times, while Lebanon’s impressive ambassador, Nada Hamadeh Awwad, has been shuttling between the White House and the State Department to ensure there will be no “unpleasant surprise” and that Netanyahu does not also happen to show up. From the Lebanese perspective, at least, there is no doubt that this is a historic meeting: The last Lebanese president invited to the White House was Michel Suleiman in 2009.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Joseph Aoun
(Photo: Petros Karadjias/AP, Shutterstock, Ronen Zvulun/Reuters, Aziz Taher/Reuters)
At the same time, members of the Lebanese delegation expressed frustration over the decision to hold the meeting with the Israeli delegation in Rome. They pressed for the talks to continue at the US State Department building in Washington. “Why Rome, of all places?” In the end, they agreed with a strained smile.
Trump also pressured Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to send a military force into Lebanon to eliminate Hezbollah and collect its weapons. But al-Sharaa made it unequivocally clear — apparently after consultations with his patron, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — that he would not send troops, saying there were first other issues that had to be resolved, including weapons and drug smuggling along the countries’ unmarked border. Lebanon’s top four officials — the president, prime minister and the foreign and interior ministers — welcomed the announcement from Damascus. The Syrian president appears stronger than his Lebanese counterpart. He is also far more favored by Trump and, of course, by Erdogan.
Were it not for the threat posed by Hezbollah, which has suffered a series of blows but is still managing to recruit young people and strengthen the Shiite presence in the Lebanese army, the talks would be moving much faster. After all, there is an understanding between Jerusalem and Beirut. Lebanese citizens want a permanent agreement with Israel. Dozens have already said on camera that they want to undergo professional training in Israel and even study at the Technion, while Israel quickly announced that “we would be happy to welcome tourists.”
In northern Israel, preparations are also underway to receive Lebanese workers under a model similar to the Jordanian arrangement at the Aqaba crossing: They arrive in the morning and return home in the evening. Anyone who has not seen Jordanian waiters communicating with Ukrainian colleagues using hand gestures has not seen what this new kind of normalization looks like.
Smadar Perry Photo: Yariv KatzParticular attention should be paid to the special role of the Lebanese ambassador in Washington. On the one hand, she continues to head the diplomatic negotiating team opposite her Israeli counterpart, Yechiel Leiter, who has discreetly developed a special relationship with her and speaks of her in glowing terms. Yet at the end of every round of talks, the two stand together for the group photograph without exchanging a word or shaking hands.
Ambassador Awwad has also received a grave warning not to travel to Lebanon. Hezbollah, acting under Iranian inspiration, may attempt to assassinate her in order to derail the talks.
A new idea is now beginning to take shape in Washington: replacing UNIFIL forces with American troops. Should it be implemented, it would be the ultimate solution. Together with the Lebanese army, they could then “deal with” Hezbollah, clear the southern communities adjacent to the Israeli border and deepen relations.