Lebanon’s Efforts to Tame Hezbollah Stall Amid Israel War

President Joseph Aoun took office with a popular mandate to reassert control after the militant group dragged the country back into war with Israel. When Lebanese and Israeli officials sat down in April for their first direct talks in decades, Lebanon’s leaders called it a breakthrough: a chance, finally, to reclaim some control over the country’s fate after Hezbollah had dragged it into yet another war with Israel. But four months and seven rounds of negotiations later, there is little to show for it. The standstill is a blow to Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, who took office last year with a popular mandate to wrest power from Hezbollah. Aoun, elected by Lebanese lawmakers, pledged to restore the state’s monopoly on arms and curtail Hezbollah’s political sway.

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