Senior Lebanese officials said Saturday’s talks with visiting US deputy special envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus were positive, focusing on south Lebanon amid a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
President Joseph Aoun and Ortagus discussed “south Lebanon, the work of the international monitoring committee and the Israeli withdrawal” from Lebanese territory, a statement from the presidency said, characterising the talks as constructive.
The United States chairs a committee, which also includes France, that is tasked with overseeing the ceasefire that ended more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s office, in a statement, also said the discussions with the envoy were “positive”.
Ortagus’s second visit to Lebanon comes as Israel continues to carry out strikes in Lebanon despite a November 27 ceasefire with Hezbollah, and as its troops remain in several points in the country’s south.
Under the truce, Hezbollah was to redeploy its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Israel was due to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops in five places it deems “strategic”.
Lebanon’s army has been deploying in areas the Israeli military has withdrawn from.
Ortagus and Salam discussed the Lebanese army’s work in implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and formed the basis of the November truce, his office said.
The resolution says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and called for the disarmament of all non-state armed groups.
Economic issues
Salam’s office said the talks also addressed the Syrian-Lebanese border, where deadly clashes erupted last month, emphasising the importance of preventing “any tensions or chaos, and all forms of smuggling”, according to the premier’s office.
Hezbollah has long exerted influence over large parts of the Lebanese-Syrian border, and Israel has repeatedly struck the area.
The Lebanese and Syrian defence ministers last month signed an agreement addressing security and military issues along the border, which has no official demarcation.
Aoun and Ortagus also discussed economic reforms and “combatting corruption”, his office said, a day after Lebanon’s new central bank governor Karim Souaid took office.
Souaid has pledged to advance key reforms demanded by international creditors to unlock bailout funds amid a years-long economic crisis.
Salam and Ortagus discussed “the need to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund”, his office said.
Ortagus also met on Saturday with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, discussing “Israeli violations and attacks on Lebanon” as well as economic and administrative reforms, his office said in a statement.
She also met with army chief Rodolphe Haykal.
On her first visit in February, Ortagus sparked anger among Hezbollah supporters by saying the group had been “defeated by Israel” and declaring “the end of Hezbollah’s reign of terror”.
The Iran-backed group was heavily weakened during the war with Israel, but remains active.
Last month, Ortagus told Lebanese TV channel Al-Jadeed that the US and France had set up working groups that would address issues including the border disputes between the two countries and Israel’s continued presence south Lebanon.
“We want to get a political resolution, finally, to the border disputes,” Ortagus had said.
