U.S. President Donald Trump during a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun at the White House, on July 21, 2026. (Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP)
BEIRUT — Like most other political issues in Lebanon, President Joseph Aoun's visit to the United States and his meeting on Tuesday with U.S. President Donald Trump sparked polarized reactions across the political spectrum, with Hezbollah flatly rejecting the apparent offer of dialogue extended by the American head of state, while Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea called to "see Washington's path through to the end."
Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan stated bluntly that "there can be no dialogue with those who attack us, destroy our land and homes, and kill our people," referencing Trump's announcement of his willingness to reach out to Hezbollah if Aoun were to ask him. "The Washington summit between Joseph Aoun and Donald Trump was nothing more than American rhetoric and promises without guarantees, without a precise timetable for redeployment, and without any progress or tangible result," Hassan commented Wednesday, in an interview with Russian radio Sputnik.
Concerning the U.S. president's remarks about possible communication with Hezbollah, he said: "We were having coffee; we did not have time for that discussion," further criticizing the United States' "condescending approach." "Is the issue of arming the Lebanese Army being raised to confront Hezbollah or Israel?" the MP asked, while emphasizing the "continued cooperation and trust between the party and the army." "The American president's call for Syrian intervention in Lebanon constitutes a violation of Lebanese sovereignty," the Hezbollah MP added, criticizing the fact that the president did not comment on these statements.
Trump reiterated Tuesday his desire to see Syria get involved in the Hezbollah dossier, during a press encounter upon Aoun's arrival at the White House, even though Syrian authorities have repeatedly voiced their opposition to such an initiative.
For his part, Parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally, Nabih Berri, called to await "results on the ground," with the consolidation of the cease-fire and Israeli withdrawal, rather than "the image projected by the meeting," in an interview with the daily as-Sharq al-Awsat. Mocking a statement from Trump who had said that Berri would approve direct negotiations once he sees progress, Berri himself declared, "Trump understands me better than some Lebanese." Yesterday, Aoun backed Berri, calling him a "statesman," while Donald Trump said he had "heard that Nabih Berri is 'a good person and a decent man'."
In the Lebanese press, the Arabic-language daily al-Akhbar, close to Hezbollah, chose to dedicate its front page to the conflict around the Straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb, limiting its mention of the Aoun-Trump meeting to a sidebar. "Trump to Aoun: stances without commitment."
Conversely, the daily an-Nahar emphasized the "successful meeting" between the two men, while Nidaa al-Watan published a photo of the two presidents smiling broadly on its front page, accompanied by the headline: "The free man and the leader of the free world."
Geagea calls to 'see it through'
On the same line, LF leader Samir Geagea, a fierce opponent of Hezbollah, considered the meeting between Aoun and Trump as "not just another summit, but rather a link in an overall political process that must be seen through to its conclusion to avoid, in the months or years ahead, another escalation of tensions and another attempt at negotiating a cease-fire."
While calling on the Lebanese state at all levels to "see Washington's path through to the end," Geagea asserted that "its implementation will establish a stable situation in the South, once and for all, where the Lebanese Army will be the only deployed armed force and the Lebanese government will be the only entity authorized to make decisions on war and peace." He said the summit between Aoun and Trump "has definitively established the independence of the situation in Lebanon," from the U.S.-Iran negotiations in Islamabad, while stressing that the Lebanese dossier is now clearly and separately integrated into the "Washington path."
Commenting on the president's meetings in Washington, Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar hoped that the outcomes of the meetings in Washington would "result in real American pressure on Israel to achieve this goal," noting that "the positive positions of U.S. President Donald Trump regarding Lebanon and President Aoun are encouraging."
Information Minister Paul Morcos, for his part, described the meeting as "historic," in an interview with Saudi channel al-Hadath. He considered that it was "an official and concrete recognition by the United States of Lebanon's national decision regarding its sovereignty and its position in negotiations." He specified that "this political stance has been translated into concrete measures, starting with American support for the deployment of the Lebanese Army, coinciding with the onset of the gradual Israeli withdrawal from the agreed areas."
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