{"id":950064,"date":"2026-07-21T17:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/950064\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T17:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:39:19","slug":"donald-trump-hosts-lebanons-aoun-says-hed-speak-with-hezbollah-if-asked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/950064\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump hosts Lebanon’s Aoun, says he’d speak with Hezbollah if asked"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump pledged continued support for Lebanon during a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House on Tuesday, saying he would discuss the Lebanese army taking control of pilot zones<\/a> and was willing to speak with Hezbollah if Aoun requested it.<\/p>\n

The meeting marked the first visit by a Lebanese president to the White House in more than 17 years. During the meeting, Aoun thanked Trump for what he described as the “historic achievement” of signing the framework, adding, “It’s about time for Lebanon to be stable and secure.”<\/p>\n

Trump said the United States had a \u201cvery good\u201d relationship with Lebanon and pledged significant support for the country. “It’s been a very badly treated place and country, and we’re going to have it properly treated, and treated with the respect that it deserves,” Trump said.<\/p>\n

Trump also said he would discuss the Lebanese army taking control of villages from which the IDF had withdrawn, adding that he would examine issues related to the pilot zone, after the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) claimed earlier on Tuesday that the IDF opened fire<\/a> near Lebanese troops deploying to pilot zones in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

He also said he would speak with Hezbollah if Aoun asked him to.<\/p>\n

\"USUS President Donald Trump shakes hands with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun as he welcomes him to the White House in Washington, DC, US, July 21, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN)<\/p>\n

The meeting comes at a critical time for Lebanon. Israeli troops remain deployed at several positions in southern Lebanon, many residents remain displaced following the Israel-Hezbollah war, and Hezbollah has rejected both the government’s direct talks with Israel and efforts to disarm the group.<\/p>\n

A Lebanese official said Aoun believes only Trump possesses the leverage needed to pressure Israel to withdraw its troops and help Lebanon restore its sovereignty. The official said that Aoun, in addition to asking the US president to press Israel to withdraw, would also present Trump with a written proposal on how to decommission Hezbollah’s massive arsenal.<\/p>\n

US is gearing up to strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, Trump says<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Iran, Trump said Tehran was \u201cdesperate\u201d to hold talks, warning that it had \u201cnot seen anything yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump added that the US will be hitting the Pickaxe Mountain<\/a> area, located near Iran’s heavily damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility, “pretty soon.”<\/p>\n

Pickaxe Mountain is a heavily fortified site that hosts two deeply buried tunnel complexes that experts assess as beyond the reach of the most powerful bunker-buster bombs in the US arsenal.<\/p>\n

Pickaxe Mountain is located south of the Natanz nuclear complex, the site of two of Iran\u2019s uranium enrichment plants bombed in June 2025.<\/p>\n

Iran transferred thousands of uranium enrichment centrifuges to underground facilities deep inside Natanz’s Pickaxe Mountain last fall, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing Israeli and US officials.<\/p>\n

Trump says US ready to respond if Houthis impose Red Sea blockade<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asked about a Houthi blockade, Trump said that the United States would respond if Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement follows through on its threat to impose a blockade on commercial shipping in the Red Sea<\/a>. If the group takes action, the United States “will just have to take care of business,” he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aoun\u2019s office said he would meet<\/a> with Trump and hold \u201cmeetings and consultations with a number of American officials to discuss the situation in Lebanon and ways to consolidate the ceasefire [and] Israel\u2019s withdrawal from the Lebanese areas it occupies,\u201d UAE-based news site Al-Ain News reported earlier in the month.<\/p>\n

Seth J. Frantzman and Idan Kweller contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump pledged continued support for Lebanon during a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":950065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[69,34081,83,99,382527,62317,344751,13192,3097,6988,50,9258,5223],"class_list":["post-950064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-houthis","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israel-lebanon-peace-deal","tag-joseph-aoun","tag-lebanese-armed-forces","tag-lebanon","tag-middle-east","tag-natanz","tag-news","tag-red-sea","tag-white-house"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116959195243419885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}