President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon met with Pope Leo XIV and senior members of the Holy See during a visit to the Vatican on Thursday that the country described in a missive as focused on discussing Lebanon’s attempts at brokering peace with neighboring Israel.
Following the launch of “Operation Epic Fury,” a U.S. military campaign against Iran, in February, the government of Israel invaded Lebanon, declaring it necessary to eradicate Iranian proxy terrorist organization Hezbollah and weaken the Iranian terror state so that it no longer poses a threat to Israelis. Hezbollah, as part of the largest terror network that includes the jihadist group Hamas, had threatened northern Israelis near the Lebanese borders for years following the genocidal attacks of October 7, 2023.
Israel is currently occupying significant amounts of territory in northern Lebanon, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, including the indigenous residents of Christian villages in the area. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted repeatedly that he would not withdraw the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from Lebanon until Hezbollah was completely eliminated as a threat, and Israeli officials have dismissed Aoun’s government as unable to competently manage the Hezbollah threat. Lebanese officials have instead condemned Israel for invading their country and demanded a peaceful resolution that allows for its communities in the south to maintain control of their native land.
The Vatican has been keenly interested in Lebanon under Pope Leo XIV. The earthly head of the Catholic Church made Lebanon a stop on his first international tour as pope, visiting Christians impacted by war and encouraging them to resist mass migration and displacement. Lebanon is home to a robust Catholic population and welcomed the pope enthusiastically. Lebanon and Israel are currently engaging in a peace process in Rome to end the Israeli occupation, with meetings expected to resume in September. Those talks, in which America is involved, produced a framework agreement towards peace in June that Lebanon accuses Israel of repeatedly violating by bombing residential communities; Israel claims Hezbollah is using those communities to stage attacks on its people.
According to the Holy See, Aoun met with both Pope Leo and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, during his time in the country.
“The cordial discussions at the Secretariat of State focused essentially on the Trilateral Framework Agreement, signed by the United States, Israel, and Lebanon aimed at stabilizing the southern borders of the Republic of Lebanon and at achieving a just and lasting peace,” the Holy See Press Office shared following their meeting. “While expressing satisfaction at the signing of the Document, the Holy See voiced serious concerns about the difficulties that are being encountered in implementing it, and assured the President of its support for efforts in this regard.”
Vatican News shared that Aoun’s presidential office shared a separate readout of the exchange emphasizing that the president appreciated Pope Leo’s support in bringing peace to Lebanon.
“Aoun called on Israel to halt the daily attacks that are particularly targeting civilians, infrastructure, and villages in southern Lebanon,” according to Vatican News, “and to withdraw from occupied territories, paving the way for the reconstruction of what has been destroyed and for the return of displaced people.”
The Lebanese president reportedly emphasized that only a full withdrawal of the IDF would allow the Lebanese people to begin engaging in the reconstruction of their villages, many of them completely destroyed by IDF bombings.
Back in Lebanon, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam held a meeting with mayors of some of the most negatively affected Christian villages in southern Lebanon to ensure them that restoring Lebanese sovereignty over their territory was a “national priority” for the government. Some of the affected communities, Salam highlighted, have been completely isolated from the rest of Lebanon, causing fear of a lack of food, medicine, and other critical humanitarian supplies.
The Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Today reported on Thursday that IDF attacks on targets in southern Lebanon continued that day, including the destruction of several homes. Israeli authorities have repeatedly justified these attacks by insisting that the sites targeted are not innocent family homes but, rather, Hezbollah hideouts, and revealing the occasional killing of a high-ranking Hezbollah official in these operations.
Over the weekend, for example, the Israeli government announced that it had killed Ali Muhammad Fakhr al-Din, an alleged senior Hezbollah commander, in southern Lebanon, following a Hezbollah drone attack on the IDF. Hezbollah has enthusiastically objected to peace talks between Israel and Lebanon and regularly attempted to create situations that result in agreement violations.
“Hezbollah violated the ceasefire in Lebanon by attacking our soldiers in the security zone, which protects Israeli communities just across the border,” Netanyahu announced on Saturday in a statement from his office, explaining that some civilians were killed in the operation. “The IDF responded by striking the Hezbollah terror headquarters which ordered the attack. Only later did the IDF learn that Hezbollah deliberately put civilians in that military compound.”
Netanyahu spokesman Doron Spielman nonetheless emphasized in comments this weekend that Israeli officials “believe in the agreement” and are looking forward to talks in September.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full article here