'This will be your legacy': Aoun seeks financing for Lebanon, pressure on Israel

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday largely steered clear of the potential minefield that comes with being in front of the press alongside US President Donald Trump, as the two leaders met for the very first time at the White House. 

The sit-down is a highly coveted opportunity for Aoun, who assumed office just two weeks before Trump's inauguration in January 2025. 

The last Lebanese president to sit in the Oval Office was Michel Sleiman in 2009, with former President Barack Obama. 

"Been looking forward to this visit for a very long time, meeting such a great president like yourself," Aoun said in English, prompting the US president to swiftly acknowledge the praise: "See, he knows how to get to me. Now he can have anything he wants."

What Aoun wants is a committed US engagement to Lebanon that comes with increased pressure on Israel, as well as ramped-up financing for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and reconstruction of the decimated south. 

What he received instead after he departed was an announcement from Trump that US airlines will now be permitted to fly directly to Lebanon - something that has not happened in 40 years.

"I am hereby directing my Administration to allow all US airline carriers to fly directly to Lebanon so that Americans can easily visit this beautiful land," he wrote on his social media platform, TruthSocial.

Flights were barred by the Ronald Reagan administration in 1985 after Hezbollah members hijacked TWA Flight 847, in a bid to demand the release of Lebanese citizens in Israeli custody. 

"It's a win [for Aoun] if it's easier for people to travel to Lebanon in a safe fashion," ‪Anthony Wanis-St John, a conflict resolution expert and professor at American University in Washington, DC, told Middle East Eye.

Safety, of course, depends on the stability of the country. And until Lebanon is no longer in open hostilities with Israel, it's unlikely to draw American tourists. 

Much like every other Arab leader who has been in the Oval Office over the past 18 months, Aoun is keenly aware that only Trump has the capacity and leverage to rein in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war on Lebanon.

"The ultimate objective [is] ending the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel forever," Aoun told reporters.

"I think, Mr President, this will be your legacy," he said, looking at Trump.

The de facto Israeli occupation of large parts of the south since March of this year has raised the Lebanese death toll to more than 4,300 since Hezbollah began its rocket attacks on Israel on 8 October 2023, in a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza. 

Though Hezbollah has no part in any US-hosted Lebanese-Israeli negotiations, Trump acknowledged the group's critical role in moving the trilateral framework forward.

"I would speak to Hezbollah. I speak to everybody," Trump said. "If the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah - you know he's lived with Hezbollah for a long time - if the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, I would."

But there is little indication Aoun would entertain the option, given his visit is meant to affirm that there is only one state authority in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which was born out of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s, has been a designated terrorist group in the US since 1997. 

Asked by a reporter about Lebanon's parliamentary speaker, Nabih Berri, cautioning that confrontations between LAF and Hezbollah fighters could lead to a Lebanese civil war, Aoun insisted that the declaration-style framework "doesn't require the endorsement of the parliament... it's part of our constitution [that] it's a prerogative of the president, and we are committed to it."

Berri, the founder of the Shia-majority Amal movement, which is aligned with Hezbollah's lawmakers, "really wants to see the end of this war", Aoun said.