Lebanese President tells Pompeo Hezbollah has popular support

Lebanese President Michel Aoun told has told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, has a popular support in the country.

"Preserving national unity and civil peace is a priority for us," Aoun told Pompeo, the Lebanese presidency said on its Twitter feed.  

Pompeo met with Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut on Friday. 

Earlier, the long-serving speaker of Lebanon's parliament, Nabih Berri, told Pompeo that American sanctions against Hezbollah were having a "negative impact on Lebanon and the Lebanese.”

Nabih Berri told the top US diplomat in a meeting in Beirut that Hezbollah is a Lebanese political party whose members are in the government and parliament, and that it is carrying out “resistance” against Israel to free Lebanese territory from Israeli occupation.

Earlier in the day, Pompeo also met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the Grand Serail, which is the headquarters of the Prime Minister of Lebanon. 

SS