Rubio hails Lebanon for peace efforts

Secretary of State meets with President Aoun

WASHINGTON:

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Washington on Sunday, praising the country for its "move towards peace" after the latest round of Lebanon-Israel talks.

It was the first trip to the US capital by a Lebanese head of state since Michel Sleiman was received by Barack Obama in 2009.

Aoun and Rubio held talks at the State Department, and Lebanese officials said Aoun is due to meet with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Rubio said Aoun's government had made a "determined effort to reclaim Lebanon's sovereignty, disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure, and move towards peace," according to a State Department release.

Israel and Lebanon -- which do not have formal diplomatic relations -- began US-sponsored negotiations in April aimed at reaching a peace deal and permanently ending the Israel-Hezbollah war.

On June 26, they reached a framework agreement in Washington under which the Israeli military is to withdraw from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese army is to deploy, starting with two "pilot zones."

But the agreement is contingent on the disarmament of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, which has flatly rejected both the deal and the Israel-Lebanon negotiations that underpin it.

At Sunday's talks, the Lebanese president stressed that Lebanon and the United States must "align... regarding the implementation of the tripartite framework, through achieving the first Israeli withdrawal from the first pilot zone."

Following the latest round of talks last week in Rome, Israel and Lebanon agreed on guidelines for implementing the pilot zones, according to the United States. AFP