A Hezbollah member of Lebanon's parliament launched a sharp attack on President Joseph Aoun on the eve of Aoun's meeting with President Trump at the White House.
Speaking in Beirut, Hassan Ezzeddine accused Aoun of arrogance, saying his insistence on continuing direct negotiations with Israel is pushing Lebanon toward internal fracture and undermining national understandings. Ezzeddine went further, charging that Aoun has stopped being a president for all Lebanese and has instead become the president of a single faction within the country.
The attack lands amid mounting internal tension in Lebanon over implementation of its framework agreement with Israel and the American-mediated negotiations behind it. Aoun traveled to Washington this week for the first state visit by a Lebanese president since 2009, meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday before a scheduled Tuesday sit-down with Trump, his first face to face meeting with the American president. According to reports, Aoun and Rubio agreed on completing an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon as part of implementing the tripartite framework reached on June 26, which pairs a phased Israeli pullback with the disarmament of Hezbollah. Aoun is also expected to hand Trump a written proposal on decommissioning Hezbollah's arsenal, believing Trump is the only leader with enough leverage to press Israel to withdraw.
Hezbollah has rejected both the framework agreement and Aoun's direct engagement with Israel outright, and Ezzeddine's remarks reflect that opposition playing out publicly just as Aoun seeks to present a unified Lebanese position in Washington.
Separately, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has stressed the need to end what he described as Iran's current state of neither war nor peace, adding that Iran's gains in negotiations have exceeded expectations while accusing Washington of violating its commitments. The comments come as Qatar and Pakistan reportedly floated a ten day halt in strikes to both Washington and Tehran, aimed at reviving diplomacy and the interim agreement between the two countries.
Jordan's King Abdullah II also departed for a visit to Britain, where he is expected to meet with leading business figures to discuss expanding economic cooperation between the two countries.
