President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would personally speak with Hezbollah leadership if asked to do so by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
Unlike past presidents, Trump has repeatedly flouted norms regarding direct American negotiations with terrorist groups, something he himself referenced during a bilateral meeting with Aoun at the White House.
“I speak to everybody. I’ll speak to people that a lot of people think I shouldn’t be speaking to, and things work out,” he told reporters gathered in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “If the president [of Lebanon] wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, you know he’s lived with Hezbollah for a long time, and if the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, I would.”
The president reportedly contacted Hezbollah, an Iran-funded terror proxy group operating out of southern Lebanon, through a regional intermediary shortly after the U.S. signed the memorandum of understanding with Iran. Then-ongoing fighting between the terrorist group and Israel threatened to blow up Trump’s Iran deal, which he has since abandoned in the wake of Iranian strikes against international commerce moving through the Strait of Hormuz and American military assets in the region.
The president said on Tuesday that he and Aoun would speak about how the U.S. can help stabilize southern Lebanon amid an Israeli military withdrawal. Trump claimed that the White House has developed “some very concrete plans” for addressing the issue with assistance from regional partners.
Furthermore, Trump expressed openness to Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa’s suggestion that the Syrian military invade southern Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah.
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“We get along very well with the president of Syria. He’s done a very good job. I wouldn’t be surprised if this gentleman’s going to do a job just like that,” Trump said Tuesday, seated next to Aoun. “He’s done a very good job. He’s pulled Syria together. He would like to come in and do something with Hezbollah. They’ve been fighting — he’s been fighting Hezbollah for a long time. I think it’d be very effective.”
You can watch Trump’s comments in full below.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
