Planned visit by US envoy sparks protests in southern Lebanon

28/8/2025 6:29

Hundreds of people protested in southern Lebanon on Wednesday against a planned visit by U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack, a day after the envoy stirred anger in the country by publicly scolding Lebanese reporters.



Lebanon's state news agency said Barrack's visit to Tyre and the border town of Khiyam had been cancelled due to the demonstrations. Protesters carried banners reading "Death to America" and waved the flags of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and its Shiite ally, the Amal movement, according to social media footage and witnesses.



The U.S. embassy in Beirut did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



Popular opposition in southern Lebanon could complicate U.S. efforts to promote a plan for Hezbollah's disarmament. The plan resulted from a U.S.-brokered truce in November between Lebanon and Israel following more than a year of conflict sparked by the war in Gaza.



The U.S. is linking the plan to a phased Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, while also promoting a U.S.- and Gulf-backed economic development zone in Lebanon's south aimed at reducing Hezbollah's reliance on Iranian funding.