Trump envoys the new Lebanon leaders to isolate the Hisbollah

A envoy of the Trump Administration in the Middle East pressed the new leaders of Lebanon on Friday to ensure that the Hisbollah will not become part of the government, since the country undermines with a fragile ceasefire and violence that could undermine its advance for stability .

At a press conference in Beirut, the United States, Morgan Ortagus, sent the United States. Ms. Ortagus said that Lebanon guides are obliged to ensure that Iran’s militia “is not part of this government in any form”.

Her comments came after she had met her proposal with the new president of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, who later refuted her proposal. In an explanation, his office said that some of Ms. Ortagus’ comments expressed their “personal point of view” without working on them.

The new leadership of Lebanon most likely has to do a balance with the Hisbollah, which has long been the dominant political power of the country, but was beaten by a 14-month war against Israel. Washington has tried to benefit from the weakened position of the HISBOLLAH in the past few weeks by putting pressure on the Lebanese officials to undermine their political strangling control, but the group still has a significant power in parliament.

The visit of Ms. Ortagus, a former spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, was the first of a high -ranking US official since Mr. Trump took office and provided some of the earliest public signs of what the goals of the new US government in Lebanon looked like.

Mr. Aoun was elected president last month after years of political standstill and he has shown a new prime minister, Nawaf Salam. This is seen as a decisive step towards restoring stability in Lebanon after years of the crisis, but the effort has so far been slow.

In Lebanon, the cabinet posts have traditionally been divided between 18 religious groups after a decade -long contract for making a common contract. The new government would need a vote of trust from the 128-strong parliament in Lebanon, in which the Hisbollah and its allies have a considerable number of seats.

The continued fluctuation of the Hisbollah would bring the new government into a bond. The Lebanon has been created from its deadliest war for decades and urgently needs foreign funds to maintain the reconstruction, but the western governments are averse to sending a government with an unreserved influence of the HISBOLLAH influence.

So far, Mr. Salam has been allowed to select four out of five Shiite Muslim ministers in his new cabinet – a likely reason for the alarm in Washington.

The selection of Mr. Salam, who is seen as a reformist, was a blow to the Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group. The political opponents had hoped that the Shiite nominations for the new government of Mr. Salam-Wie would be prescribed for people without connections to Hisbollah according to the country’s sectarian power contract.

“If there are Hisbollah employees who are appointed in key positions in the new government, this will make it difficult if you do not destroy the new Trump government’s support” Strengthening relationships between the United States and Lebanon.

“It will be a wrench in the works,” he said.

The increasing diplomatic pressure comes at a delicate time for the tiny Mediterranean nation.

After a 60-day ceasefire, which ended the war between Israel and the Hisbollah in November, Israeli troops should now have withdrawn from Lebanon.

But they didn’t do this, and Israeli forces killed two dozen people last month, according to the Lebanese officials, as thousands of people tried to return to their houses near the border when the ceasefire went. The Israeli military said that it “fired warning shots to eliminate threats”.

With the ceasefire, which has now been extended until February 18, many in Lebanon are now afraid of the prospect of a continuing Israeli occupation of the south of the country. During the press conference on Friday, Ms. Ortagus said that the United States was committed to the new ceasefire period and that the Israeli troops should withdraw until then.

With increasing tensions, the Israeli military carried out a new series of air strikes overnight in the Lebanese area. The military said that it had targeted the Hisbollah military sites and accused the group of violating the conditions of the ceasefire agreement. Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the deal.

The state news agency in Lebanon reported on attacks in southern and eastern Lebanon, which have been the most intensive ones since the end of the war in November. There were no immediate reports on victims.

The fights continued on Friday along the Lebanese-Syrian border, where Scharmützel broke out the day before between Syrian armed forces and armed armed men in Lebanon. Syria’s new rebel authorities said they tried to capture cross -border smuggling networks, according to Syria’s state news agency Sana, Syria’s state news agency.

Since President Bashar al-Assad from Syria was overthrown in December, Lebanon has feared that further instability will be buried across its limits.