US envoy Tom Barrack said Washington cannot force but only influence Israeli actions as he met Lebanese leaders in Beirut on Monday for more talks on disarming Hezbollah and stopping Israeli bombing.
“The US has no business in trying to compel Israel to do anything … America could only influence,” he said during meetings with President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
Lebanon has asked the US to act as guarantor to ensure that Israel will pull out its troops in full and stop targeting operations against members of Hezbollah, if the armed group begins handing in weapons.
Mr Barrack also reiterated his position that disarming Hezbollah is a matter for Lebanon, but said pushing for reform in the country was vital and the US wanted it to prosper.
He said “the reforms that are happening … are amazingly plausible and significant”.
But he also ruled out sanctions against Lebanese officials for failing to disarm Hezbollah. “There’s no consequence, there’s no threat, there’s no whip,” Mr Barrack said.
Israel continues to bomb south Lebanon daily and occupies five strategic points on Lebanese territory, despite a ceasefire struck with Hezbollah in November.
Mr Barrack accepted that the November truce “didn’t work” and said a lasting solution needed to be found. He said US President Donald Trump “attaches importance to the situation in Lebanon and the restoration of stability in the region”.
President Aoun gave the US envoy a “draft comprehensive memorandum for implementing Lebanon’s pledges” that have been made since the ceasefire was struck, according to a statement from the presidency.
The document emphasised the need to extend state authority to the entire country, restrict weapons to the army and ensure “decisions of war and peace” rest with Lebanese constitutional authorities.
Mr Barrack’s visit is his second to Lebanon in two weeks and is expected to last several days. Lebanon and the US have been exchanging “ideas” on a proposal that would ultimately lead to Hezbollah’s disarmament, with all weapons then coming under the control of the Lebanese state. Beirut is also pushing for Israel to halt its daily attacks and withdraw from the five points it occupies.
However, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Naim Qassem has accused Mr Barrack of seeking to encourage the Lebanese Army to disarm the group by force and provoke a civil war.
The Hezbollah leader has taken a hard line on the weapons issue, arguing that Israel would expand its territorial control over parts of Lebanon in the absence of the militant group. “We will not surrender or give up to Israel; Israel will not take our weapons away from us,” Mr Qassem said in a video speech at a commemoration for a senior Hezbollah commander killed in the war with Israel last year.
“We are ready for any action that leads to a Lebanese understanding,” he added. “But for Israel and America, we will not do this under any type of threat.”
On his previous visit, Mr Barrack, who is special envoy for Syria and US ambassador to Turkey, said he was satisfied with Lebanon’s response to the US plan for the disarmament of Hezbollah. But he also insisted that Lebanon must not be left behind in a rapidly changing region.
In their reply to the US proposal, Lebanese authorities submitted a seven-page document calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from disputed territory, including Shebaa Farms, and reaffirming state control over all weapons while pledging to dismantle Hezbollah’s arms in south Lebanon.
In a recent interview with The National, Mr Barrack said time was of the essence. “I honestly think that they are going to say, ‘the world will pass us by’. Why? You have Israel on one side, you have Iran on the other, and now you have Syria manifesting itself so quickly that if Lebanon doesn’t move, it’s going to be Bilad Al Sham again,” he said, using the historical name for the Greater Syria region.
That comment by Mr Barrack was widely interpreted as suggesting Lebanon risks being swallowed up into a Greater Syria, but the envoy later said he was merely trying to praise “Syria’s impressive strides”.
“I can assure that Syria’s leaders only want coexistence and mutual prosperity with Lebanon, and the United States is committed to supporting that relationship between two equal and sovereign neighbours enjoying peace and prosperity,” he said on X.