Congress member says U.S. will push Israel to withdraw from Lebanon if the army secures the country

Re. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., centre, listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing during a tour of the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood affected by recent wildfires in Los Angeles, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

BEIRUT — A U.S. congress member said Thursday that Washington will push Israel to withdraw from all of southern Lebanon if the Lebanese army asserts full control over the country.

“We will push hard to make sure that there is — and this is something that I will work with the Israelis on — a complete withdrawal in return for the Lebanese Armed Forces showing its ability to secure all Lebanon,” California Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa said.

He was speaking in Beirut, where he met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, ahead of a meeting where the Lebanese cabinet was set to discuss disarmament of the militant group Hezbollah.

Issa did not specify whether the U.S. would ask Israel to begin withdrawing its forces from the territory it is occupying in southern Lebanon before or after Hezbollah gives up its arsenal, a point that has been in dispute.

The Lebanese government asked the national army on Tuesday to prepare a plan in which only state institutions in the small nation will have weapons by the end of the year, a move that aims to disarm Hezbollah.

After Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Hezbollah accused the government of caving to U.S. and Israeli pressure and said it would “treat this decision as if it does not exist.”

Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss giving up its remaining arsenal until Israel withdraws from five hills it is occupying inside Lebanon and stops almost daily airstrikes that have killed or wounded hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah members, since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its military capabilities and said it is protecting its border. Since the ceasefire, Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for one attack fired across the border.

Issa, who is of Lebanese origin, said that the U.S. must “help all the neighbors around understand that it is the exclusive right of the Lebanese Armed Forces to make decisions.”

“If there’s something that goes wrong, the Lebanese Armed Forces will be asked to to be responsible,” he said.

The Associated Press