{"id":274738,"date":"2025-04-05T10:44:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T10:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/05\/trump-envoy-visits-lebanon-amid-fears-over-a-shaky-cease-fire\/"},"modified":"2025-04-05T10:44:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T10:44:15","slug":"trump-envoy-visits-lebanon-amid-fears-over-a-shaky-cease-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/05\/trump-envoy-visits-lebanon-amid-fears-over-a-shaky-cease-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Envoy Visits Lebanon Amid Fears Over a Shaky Cease-Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/05\/multimedia\/05int-lebanon-01-jzcl\/05int-lebanon-01-jzcl-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Trump Envoy Visits Lebanon Amid Fears Over a Shaky Cease-Fire\" title=\"Trump Envoy Visits Lebanon Amid Fears Over a Shaky Cease-Fire\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A top Trump administration envoy to the Middle East was in Lebanon on Saturday amid U.S. pressure on the country to crack down on Hezbollah and as tensions with Israel flare despite a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/26\/world\/middleeast\/cease-fire-israel-hezbollah-lebanon.html\" title=\"\">U.S.-brokered cease-fire<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Morgan Ortagus, President Trump\u2019s deputy Middle East envoy, met with senior officials after strikes over the past two weeks threatened the truce that went into effect in November.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Lebanese government has been trying to rebuild the country in the wake of the devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah in which about 4,000 people in Lebanon were killed and roughly one million displaced. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group that had long been a dominant force in Lebanon, was severely weakened in the war, but still has significant influence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Saturday morning, Ms. Ortagus met with Lebanon\u2019s new president, Joseph Aoun, to discuss issues including the situation in southern Lebanon, according to a statement from Mr. Aoun\u2019s office. Under the cease-fire, the Lebanese military is supposed to take charge in the country\u2019s south, where Hezbollah had long been deeply entrenched.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last week, militants fired rockets at Israel, prompting Israeli forces to bombard the outskirts of Beirut, the capital, and southern Lebanon. Israel later <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/31\/world\/middleeast\/israel-strike-lebanon-beirut.html\" title=\"\">struck the area south of Beirut<\/a> \u2014 known as the Dahiya \u2014 in what it said was targeting a Hezbollah official, raising further fears that the truce could fall apart.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hezbollah denied any connection to the rocket fire. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah has shown appetite for a return to full-scale war. The cease-fire has continued to hold, at least for now, despite the tensions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Ortagus and Mr. Aoun also discussed ongoing financial overhauls by the new Lebanese government, according to the Lebanese statement. Lebanese officials hope the effort will help bring in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/24\/world\/europe\/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-government-economy.html\" title=\"\">increased foreign assistance<\/a> \u2014 including from the United States \u2014 to rebuild the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The total damage and economic loss from the war is estimated to be $14 billion, and Lebanon needs $11 billion to rebuild, the World Bank said last month, making the conflict the country\u2019s most destructive since its long civil war ended in 1990.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Experts say the amount of international aid is likely to depend on whether the Lebanese government can assert its control over the country, including by disarming Hezbollah. Before the war, the armed group was so powerful that it was generally considered a state within a state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/05\/world\/middleeast\/lebanon-us-israel-hezbollah.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A top Trump administration envoy to the Middle East was in Lebanon on Saturday amid U.S. pressure on the country to crack down on Hezbollah and as tensions with Israel flare despite a U.S.-brokered cease-fire. Morgan Ortagus, President Trump\u2019s deputy Middle East envoy, met with senior officials after strikes over the past two weeks threatened [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/05\/multimedia\/05int-lebanon-01-jzcl\/05int-lebanon-01-jzcl-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7275,137233,12999,2622,16220,137234,38,16221,1209,211717,19754,52,128437,6137],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274738"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274740,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274738\/revisions\/274740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}