The Lebanese Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam (R), meets at the Grand Serail with the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa (left), on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (Credit: Grand Serail X account/@grandserail)
BEIRUT — As the war raged in Lebanon since Monday, President Joseph Aoun appealed to France and the United States to press for an end to Israeli attacks, holding talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, the presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.
Aoun received a call Wednesday from Macron and spoke the same day with Issa.
Aoun had also spoken with Macron on Tuesday afternoon. During that call, the French president described a potential Israeli ground operation in southern Lebanon as a "strategic mistake." The two leaders discussed ongoing security developments, and Aoun stressed the need for France to act to stop Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Aoun met Issa and reiterated his call for U.S. intervention to cease the Israeli attacks, the presidency said in a post on X. The U.S. ambassador also met Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the Grand Serail, where they discussed "developments in Lebanon and the region," according to a statement shared on X.
Issa said the government’s decisions to ban Hezbollah’s military activities and to instruct the army to implement a plan to establish a state monopoly over weapons "as soon as possible" and by "all possible means" had "come too late."
