AMICHAI STEIN
US President Donald Trump pressured Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Lebanon after Lebanon’s president clarified to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior American officials that such a call would not take place without progress in negotiations between the two countries, according to two sources familiar with the details.
Although the US president posted on Truth Social on Thursday morning that a call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun would take place, Aoun refused.
“There is only value in such a phone call between leaders when there is significant progress on the ground. Without real negotiations underway, and certainly without a ceasefire, I will not hold a call with Netanyahu at this time,” Aoun said.
He emphasized that he is not ruling out a future call with the prime minister, but that something meaningful must happen first.
These remarks by Aoun on Thursday, including those made to Rubio, led to a conversation between Aoun and Trump, during which the American president promised his Lebanese counterpart that “there will be a ceasefire.”
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