Trump Lifts Ban on Direct Flights to Lebanon

The F.A.A. said in a statement that it “looks forward to working with airlines and our interagency partners to advance the president’s directive and support the safe return of flights to Lebanon.”

Mr. Trump’s decision potentially increases the American footprint in Beirut amid an uncertain security situation. Lebanese and Israeli leaders are working under a U.S.-brokered framework to negotiate a withdrawal of Israeli troops from areas occupied as part of a campaign against Hezbollah that Israel waged in parallel with the war in Iran. The U.S. State Department said on Monday that withdrawal operations had begun in three “pilot zones,” though by Tuesday, both sides acknowledged that Israel had resumed gunfire.

Hezbollah, a militia backed by Iran that has long functioned as a de facto government within Lebanon, has rejected the U.S.-backed peace process, which would involve its disarmament.

The U.S. efforts to end hostilities between Lebanon and Israel, which have vacillated between states of frozen conflict and all-out war for nearly 80 years, are currently at odds with Mr. Trump’s more dour outlook for Iran, where peace talks have broken down and regular bombardment has resumed. But the two spheres of conflict remain linked, given Iran and Hezbollah’s ties, and the influence that the militia group wields in Lebanon’s internal affairs.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he “would speak to Hezbollah” to help advance a resolution to the conflict, particularly if Mr. Aoun requested it.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/us/politics/trump-lebanon-flights-ban.html