American envoy Morgan Ortagus meets with Joseph Aoun

U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy for the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, is in Lebanon on Friday, where she met in the morning President Joseph Aoun.

During her meeting with the head of state, accompanied by a delegation including U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson, Ortagus conveyed Trump's congratulations on Aoun's election. She also conveyed Washington’s “support” for Beirut.

The United States and France negotiated the cease-fire agreement in Lebanon, which ended the war between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, launched on Oct. 8, 2023, and lasted until Nov. 27, 2024. The fighting resulted in more than 4,000 deaths and destroyed entire villages and neighborhoods in some regions of Lebanon, particularly in the south, Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut. As the implementation period of this agreement's terms has been extended until Feb. 18 after a prolongation due to Israel's refusal to withdraw from southern Lebanon, Washington is also tasked with negotiating the release of Hezbollah prisoners captured by Israel during its ground offensive.

The United States is also pushing for the formation of a new Lebanese government, a task Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam has been tackling since mid-January.

As Israel carried out strikes on Thursday night on the Nabatieh region and the border region with Syria in the Bekaa, Aoun also held discussions with several security officials. He held a meeting with the acting Director General of General Security, responsible notably for managing border posts, General Elias Baissari, and with the head of the army's intelligence services, General Tony Kahwagi, as well as with the acting commander-in-chief, Major General Hassane Audi. They notably discussed the issue of the Lebanese army's deployment south of the Litani, one of the conditions of the cease-fire agreement.