Lebanon's president urges Trump to 'keep supporting' its army

Next, Lebanon's president is urging his American counterpart to maintain military support for his army to avoid a return to the chaos of the 1970s. Joseph Aoun is in Washington for talks with Donald Trump. Lebanon's army has begun to deploy into three pilot zones outlined in a deal to disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. Israel still occupies much of South Lebanon since being dragged into a war after Hezbollah attacked in March. Lebanon and Israel have held face-to-face talks mediated by Washington. Aoun's visit to the White House is the first by a Lebanese president since 2009. Let's hear from both men. I would speak to Hezbollah, yeah. I speak to everybody. I'll speak to people that a lot of people think I shouldn't be speaking to and things work out. If the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, you know, he's lived with Hezbollah for a long time. And if the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, I would. Let's try and get a more precise overview of what this all means. Noga Tarnaposki joins us, our correspondent in Jerusalem. Noga, great to have you with us as always. I need this kind of sense of what this is going to mean on a broader sense, I think, because clearly it is significant that Lebanon's president and the U.S. president are sat there together speaking. But I'm wondering where it goes from this stage. Yes, it's actually significant on several levels and regarding several of the opportunities or crises right now in the Middle East. For one, this, as you mentioned, this is a real coup for Lebanon's Joseph Aoun. An American president hasn't been seen with a Lebanese president since 2009, as you said. And this Lebanese president has really taken unprecedented and very courageous steps to open his country to the West and to try and secure stability. Iran, on the other side of the region, has tried to make sure Donald Trump continued to consider Lebanon under its aegis. And it seemed to have succeeded in getting quite a coup when the United States and Iran signed the Memorandum of Understanding in April, in which Iran was allowed to determine that the fighting in Lebanon would be considered basically part of this American-Iranian deal. So the fact that this Lebanese president has succeeded in getting his shining one-on-one photo op with Donald Trump in the White House is a significant statement towards Iran, a significant sign of support for Lebanon. And I have to say, it is also a bit of a slap in the face to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was initially supposed to be at this meeting. Donald Trump wanted the two leaders to meet together. Neither of the two Middle Easterners wanted to meet. But the one who got this meeting is Joseph Aoun, whereas Benjamin Netanyahu has been kind of embarrassed in recent weeks. Every week he's been announcing an imminent trip to the White House, an imminent visit to Washington to meet with Trump for about three weeks now, and this has never materialized. So all of this panorama is on the map in this photo op that we just saw today. Trump's saying that he's going to help Lebanon a lot. He says it's a region that needs to be helped out, basically saying that. Aoun saying he wants Trump and the U.S. to continue with support for his military to avoid a slip back into the type of chaos that was there in the 1970s. These are real heavy questions that are raised in terms of what is happening right now. And I'm wondering, where does it go after that? Because clearly there is a limit to what the U.S. can do. However, it seems that Aoun is saying that if it does any less, it could put Lebanon in a very difficult situation. Yes, absolutely. And he's trying to defend the interests of his nation that is really trying for the first time in several decades to reestablish full sovereignty. His government is over Lebanon. What Joseph Aoun would want to see and what Israel would probably also prefer to see is the United States investing heavily in the Lebanese Armed Forces in training for these soldiers and officers and with financial support. I don't know if the U.S. is actually considering sending U.S. kind of support personnel on the ground. We know that France has made this offer. France might join the United States to shore up Lebanese forces. But this is really an imperative right now. Today is the first day that Israeli forces withdrew from the first pilot zone in southern Lebanon. This is established also in Trump's ceasefire between Hezbollah, which is the Iranian proxy in southern Lebanon, and Israel. And it didn't go entirely smoothly. There was either a moment of a lack of discipline or an error by Israeli forces who shot at a Lebanese soldier. No one was hurt, but it could have blown up the entire deal. And so when Joseph Aoun is at the White House to celebrate this first step in the ceasefire and to formally and publicly request more aid, he really means it and his country really needs it. And the U.S. does have an interest in stability in this part of the Middle East. So I wouldn't fully rule it out, but we haven't heard any concrete steps, anything mentioned just yet. Nogatano-Posky, as always, pleasure speaking to you. Thank you very much indeed. Nogatano-Posky, our Jerusalem correspondent.