Trump honest about ending war in Lebanon, aide says
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will “fulfill the promises” that he had made in the letter that he had recently addressed to Lebanese-American voters, Trump’s Arab affairs adviser Massad Boulos said.
In the letter, Trump had pledged to “stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon” and “ensure the safety and security of the great people of Lebanon.”
“The Democrats tried to achieve a ceasefire in Lebanon prior to the elections, but Israel did not cooperate, and Trump is committed to ending the war prior to entering the White House,” Boulos told al-Jadeed.
“I will assume the mission of negotiating with the Lebanese side in order to reach an agreement, and Trump will appoint a person who has knowledge in the Israeli file to negotiate with the Israelis in order to reach an agreement,” Boulos added.
“We will immediately start working on ending the war,” he said.
In remarks to MTV, Boulos said that Trump “has not only promised to end the war and destruction, but also to contribute to rebuilding Lebanon.”
“He will start working immediately,” Boulos added.
Boulos is a Lebanese-born businessman who moved to Texas as a teenager, speaks Arabic, English and French, and recently joined the Trump family when his son married the former president's younger daughter.
Trump has long put family members and their relatives in key roles in his campaigns and the White House. Boulos, whose son Michael married Tiffany Trump two years ago, is the latest relative to rise in Trump's political orbit as he uses long-standing connections in an effort to build support for the Republican president.
Boulos has a background in politics in Lebanon, having run unsuccessfully for a parliamentary seat in Lebanon in 2009. He describes himself as a "friend" of Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh, a Christian politician allied with Hezbollah. Franjieh is currently Hezbollah's endorsed candidate for Lebanon's presidential vacancy.
A supporter of Trump from afar since his first campaign, Boulos became more directly involved after meeting Trump at a White House Christmas party in 2019. At the time, Michael Boulos was dating Tiffany Trump.
