US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson thanked on Thursday President Michel Aoun for their “productive talks” although he had been kept waiting ahead of the meeting at Baabda Palace that tackled Israel’s “assaults on Lebanese sovereignty.”
Television footage showed Tillerson sitting in a room alongside an empty seat before Lebanese Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, who is Aoun’s son-in-law, walked in and shook his hand.
The president's office denied any departure from diplomatic protocol. Rafik Chlela, head of the media office, said Tillerson had arrived a few minutes earlier than expected and the meeting began on time.
“Mr. President, thank you for the warm welcome and the open, frank, and productive discussion," Tillerson, the highest-ranking US official to visit the country in four years, wrote in Baabda Palace's visitors book after the talks.
"The United States stands with the Lebanese people for a free and democratic Lebanon."
Aoun told Tillerson that Lebanon was committed to preserving calm on its southern border and urged Washington to play an "effective role" to help resolve Beirut's land and maritime disputes with Israel.
Aoun urged the US to "work on preventing Israel from continuing its assaults on Lebanese sovereignty" by land and sea, a statement from the presidency said.
He said Lebanon was holding onto its internationally recognized borders, and rejected Israeli claims over parts of its Exclusive Economic Zone.
Lebanon has recently been at loggerheads with Israel over a cement wall it is building on the country’s border.
Lebanon has also an unresolved maritime border dispute with its neighbor over a triangular area of sea of around 860 sq km.
The zone extends along the edge of three of the five offshore energy blocks that Lebanon put to tender early last year.
After his first stop at Baabda Palace, Tillerson held talks with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh. From there he headed to the Grand Serail where he met with Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
On Wednesday, speaking in Amman, Tillerson softened Washington’s tone, saying “Hezbollah is part of the "political process" in Lebanon.
"We support a free, democratic Lebanon free of influence of others, and we know that Lebanese Hezbollah is influenced by Iran. This is influence that we think is unhelpful in Lebanon's long-term future," he said.
