Ortagus to visit Lebanon in coming hours amid calls to disarm Hezbollah

Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus will arrive in Beirut in the coming hours, al-Jadeed TV said Wednesday.

Ortagus had stressed the need to fully disarm Hezbollah and said Washington wants diplomatic negotiations and peace between Lebanon and Israel, but newly elected President Joseph Aoun assured that Hezbollah’s arms will not be removed by force and that normalization with Israel was not on the table.

"The diplomatic option is the only choice to implement the (ceasefire) agreement and secure Israel’s withdrawal from the points it is occupying (in south Lebanon)," Aoun said, adding that "any negotiations over normalization are not currently on the table" and that Lebanon will remain linked to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative - which suggested that Arab states would only normalize ties with Israel in return for a full withdrawal from the occupied territories in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and Lebanon, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Ortagus had said last month that the U.S. will be "bringing together Lebanon and Israel for talks aimed at diplomatically resolving several outstanding issues between the two countries" -- the release of Lebanese prisoners, the remaining disputed points along the Blue Line, and the remaining 5 points where Israeli forces are still deployed.

Al-Jadeed said that U.S. president Donald Trump discussed in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron the situation in Lebanon in a French attempt to de-escalate and find ways to disarm Hezbollah without using force.

MTV meanwhile said that Lebanese officials are still awaiting a confirmation of Ortagus' visit to Beirut, which is scheduled for Friday, according to the Lebanese television station.