Did Netanyahu Ask Trump to Bring Tom Barrack Back for the Lebanon File?

Sources familiar with White House affairs revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked US President Donald Trump to return the US Presidential Special Envoy to Syria and Iraq, and US Ambassador in Ankara, Tom Barrack, to work on the Lebanese file in the coming period, alongside the role of the US Ambassador in Beirut, Michel Issa.

The informed sources told "Erem News" that Netanyahu confirmed to Trump, during a call made last week to thank the Republican president for his explicit support in the Knesset elections, that negotiations between Israel and Lebanon require a more prominent role by Barrack in the upcoming period. Barrack had previously served as the US envoy in Lebanon and handed over the file to the new ambassador in Beirut about a year ago.

Barrack is an American businessman and investor close to Trump, with Lebanese origins. Reports in June stated that he was behind Trump's suggestion that Syria confront Hezbollah instead of Israel, which sparked significant controversy within Lebanon.

A source familiar with White House affairs said that Netanyahu presented this request regarding Barrack's return to a new role in the Lebanese file during his call with Trump, based on what he sees as the necessity to exert greater pressure on Lebanon in the process of disarming Hezbollah and closing the buffer zone file, until military action is taken by the army against militia positions.

The informed source added to "Erem News" that Israel wants to launch something resembling a siege campaign against the Lebanese government to impose a path of direct cooperation in military verification of disarmament between the Lebanese and Israeli armies, which Beirut directly rejects. Tel Aviv sees in Barrack the personality who possesses the tools to pressure the presidency and Lebanese institutions to accept this.

The city of Tampa in the US state of Florida hosted military negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, but the meetings, which lasted three days under US sponsorship, did not reach any notable breakthrough in the files of buffer zones, Israeli withdrawal, and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south for disarmament.

Barrack presented a proposal for disarmament in June 2025, and in July of the same year, he indicated that Washington cannot force Tel Aviv to take specific actions, at which point gaps began to appear around what the American diplomatic official proposed.

Barrack clearly knows the details of the Lebanese file and tries, according to Al-Shamati, to shift the pressure from the military side to the diplomatic one through marketing security arrangements, which may help Netanyahu consolidate the results of the war politically.