Betul Yilmaz
07 July 2025•Update: 07 July 2025
ISTANBUL
US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said on Monday that he is “satisfied” with Lebanon’s response to his roadmap for the disarmament of the Hezbollah group.
“We had a very satisfactory meeting and appreciate Lebanon’s balanced response,” Barrack said following his meeting with President Joseph Aoun, as cited by the Lebanese official news agency NNA.
He said the US will not be dictating Lebanon’s actions regarding Hezbollah but rather will take a supportive stance.
“Hezbollah needs to see that there’s a future for them, that that road is not harnessed just solely against them, and that there’s an intersection of peace and prosperity for them also,” added Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Türkiye.
The US envoy affirmed President Donald Trump’s commitment to contributing to Lebanon’s prosperity and called on Beirut to seize this opportunity.
“Dialogue has started between Syria and Israel, just as the dialogue needs to be reinvented by Lebanon,” he said, adding that Israel wants to achieve peace with Lebanon.
Barrack had presented a roadmap to senior Lebanese officials during his visit to Beirut on June 19, which called for Hezbollah to surrender all its weapons by the end of this year in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from five points it occupies in southern Lebanon and the release of funds allocated for the reconstruction of areas devastated by the recent Israeli war.
Hezbollah, however, firmly rejected handing over its weapons before the “end of the Israeli aggression” against Lebanon.
Cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon escalated into a full-scale war in September 2024. Despite a November ceasefire, Israeli forces have conducted near-daily attacks in southern Lebanon, claiming to target Hezbollah’s activities.
Since then, Lebanese authorities have reported nearly 3,000 Israeli violations of the truce, including the deaths of at least 231 people and injuries to more than 500.
Under the ceasefire deal, Israel was supposed to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon by Jan. 26, but the deadline was extended to Feb. 18 after Tel Aviv refused to comply. Israel still maintains a military presence at five border outposts.
