US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack continues to make headlines in Lebanon. Yesterday, it was for lambasting Lebanese journalists as “animalistic” at a press conference in Beirut, and today it was during his planned tour of southern Lebanon.
Barrack helicoptered into the area, arriving at the military base in Marjayoun. From there he was meant to go to multiple border villages, but protests had already erupted in a number of them, declaring him unwelcome.
Protesters at one of the sites spray-painted “Barrack is an animal” on the pavement in an intersection, referencing yesterday’s condemnation of reporters. The border town of Khiam was one of the major sites of protest, though they stretched as far north as the city of Tyre along the coast.
Protesters in southern Lebanon oppose Tom Barrack’s planned visit | Image from X
It should come as no surprise that protests would be in such villages, as the plan to create a “Trump economic zone” in southern Lebanon involves destroying those villages outright, kicking the entire population out, and creating some vaguely-defined government-run industrial site in their place.
Though he wasn’t able to make ground visits to the villages the US intends to destroy under this proposal, Barrack was able to view the Israeli occupation sites within southern Lebanon from the air.
Locals insisted that Lebanon should be the ones to decide the future of the southern part of Lebanon, still reeling from the ongoing Israeli attacks and the aftermath of last year’s invasion, not the United States.
Coming just after US discussions with Israel on the matter, it was expected that Barrack’s visit would include details about what exactly Israel was offering. Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, however, said no such details were provided, and they effectively got nothing from Israel, just more demands from Barrack.
