Southern European leaders want Lebanon's army to reassert itself in the country's south

PAPHOS, Cyprus (AP) — The leaders of nine southern European Union countries on Friday pledged support for Lebanon’s armed forces to reassert control over the country’s southern territory in hopes of bringing peace to an area plagued by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

In a joint declaration, the leaders of the so-called MED9 — Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Portugal and Croatia — said they would “continue advocating for further support to Lebanon and its people, including to the Lebanese Armed Forces which are called to play a critical stabilizing role.”

“The unfolding situation in the Middle East is gravely alarming,” the declaration said. “In light of the reverberations of the Gaza conflict on the wider region, we express our extreme concern with the escalation of the military confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah.”

French President Emmanuel Macron told a news conference that the return of the Lebanese armed forces to South Lebanon and the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty "are essential to its peace and stability.”

Macron didn't specify what form that support would take, but said an Oct. 24 conference in the French capital would aim to ramp up aid deliveries to Lebanon as humanitarian crisis looms while helping to bolster the country's military and internal security forces.

Ahead of that conference, Macron and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said a meeting of G7 defense ministers would also look at ways of assisting Lebanon's army to move into the south.

The EU leaders' declared support for Lebanon's armed forces comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Saudi, Qatari and French counterparts about how the election of a new Lebanese president might reduce tensions in the Middle East by getting Hezbollah to move its forces away from Israel’s northern border.

Meloni and Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez joined with Macron in condemning what the French president called Israel's “deliberate targeting” of soldiers belonging to a United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL). France, Spain and Italy contribute troops to UNIFIL.

“We condemn it, we do not tolerate it and we do not tolerate it happening again,” Macron said.

Both Sánchez and his Slovenian counterpart Robert Golob backed Macron's call for a suspension of weapons deliveries to Israel in what they see as an effective way to de-escalate the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.

“We haven’t sold weapons to Israel since the beginning of this war,” Sánchez said. “And the logic is simple. Without weapons there is no war.”

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, who hosted the meeting, said the leaders also discussed irregular migration, which he reiterated needs to be tackled at source — the migrants' countries of origin or the ones they transit through.

Christodoulides said he would raise with other EU leaders in Brussels ways of “creating those conditions” within Syria — in collaboration with the United Nations refugee agency and other international partners — that would allow the return of Syrian refugees to their country.

The Cypriot president said climate change was also on the agenda, underscoring the need for joint action in the Mediterranean region which he said is “particularly vulnerable."

He added Cyprus reintroduced an initiative in collaboration with Jordan to set up a regional firefighting hub, with dedicated aircraft to be stationed on the island to respond to blazes in the eastern Mediterranean.

Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, listens during a news conference in Paphos ,Cyprus, on Friday, Oct 11, 2024 as the leaders of nine southern European Union member countries and Jordan are meeting to come up with ways of de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Spain's Prime minister Pedro Sanchez, left, speaks next to French President Emmanuel Macron during a news conference in Paphos ,Cyprus, on Friday, Oct 11, 2024 as the leaders of nine southern European Union member countries and Jordan are meeting to come up with ways of de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Malta's Prime Minister Robert Abela, speaks during a press conference in Paphos ,Cyprus, on Friday, Oct 11, 2024 as the leaders of nine southern European Union member countries and Jordan are meeting to come up with ways of de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, speaks during a news conference in Paphos ,Cyprus, on Friday, Oct 11, 2024 as the leaders of nine southern European Union member countries and Jordan are meeting to come up with ways of de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, speaks during a news conference in Paphos ,Cyprus, on Friday, Oct 11, 2024 as the leaders of nine southern European Union member countries and Jordan are meeting to come up with ways of de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Portugal's foreign Minister Paulo Rangel, speaks during a press conference in Paphos ,Cyprus, on Friday, Oct 11, 2024 as the leaders of nine southern European Union member countries and Jordan are meeting to come up with ways of de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

French President Emmanuel Macron, listens during a news press conference in Paphos ,Cyprus, on Friday, Oct 11, 2024 as the leaders of nine southern European Union member countries and Jordan are meeting to come up with ways of de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, shakes hands with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, after the end of a press conference in Paphos, Cyprus, on Friday, Oct 11, 2024 as the leaders of nine southern European Union member countries and Jordan are meeting to come up with ways of de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, shakes hands with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, as Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsitakis approach them after the end of a press conference in Paphos ,Cyprus, on Friday, Oct 11, 2024 as the leaders of nine southern European Union member countries and Jordan are meeting to come up with ways of de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

From left to right French President Emmanuel Macron, Spain's Prime minister Pedro Sanchez, Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, and Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chat after the end of a press conference in Paphos ,Cyprus, on Friday, Oct 11, 2024 as the leaders of nine southern European Union member countries and Jordan are meeting to come up with ways of de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Donald Trump is detouring from the battleground states Friday to visit a Colorado suburb that's been in the news over illegal immigration as he drives a message that migrants are causing chaos in smaller American cities and towns, often using false or misleading claims to do so.

Trump’s rally in Aurora will mark the first time ahead of the November election that either presidential campaign has visited Colorado, which reliably votes Democratic statewide.

The Republican nominee has long promised to stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and has made immigration core to his political persona since the day he launched his first campaign in 2015. Over the last few months, Trump has pinpointed specific smaller communities that have seen large arrivals of migrants, with tensions flaring locally over resources and some longtime residents expressing distrust about sudden demographic changes.

Aurora entered the spotlight in August when a video circulated showing armed men walking through an apartment building housing Venezuelan migrants. Trump has claimed extensively that Venezuelan gangs are taking over buildings, even though authorities say that was a single block of the suburb near Denver, and the area is again safe.

Trump planned to announce that as president he'd launch “Operation Aurora” to focus on deporting members of the Venezeulan gang Tren de Aragua, or TDA, according to a senior campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview Trump's speech. The violent gang traces its origins more than a decade to an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals.

Trump planned to repeat his pledge to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen who is from a country that the U.S. is at war with.

In July, the Biden administration issued a sanction against the gang, placing it alongside MS-13 from El Salvador and the Mafia-styled Camorra from Italy on a list of transnational criminal organizations and offering $12 million in rewards for the arrest of three leaders.

At the venue where he was appearing on Friday, chants of “Trump!” and guttural cries of excitement began before the sun rose and continued throughout the morning. Attendees trickled into the vast conference hall, curated specially for Trump’s visit to Aurora: On stage, posters displayed mug shots of people in prison-orange with descriptions including “Illegal immigrant gang members from Venezuela.”

Stephen Miller, a former top aide who is expected to take a senior role in the White House if Trump wins, pointed to the posters as he addressed the crowd ahead of Trump's appearance.

“Look at all these photos around me," Miller said. “Are these the kids you grew up with? Are these the neighbors you were raised with? Are these the neighbors that you want in your city?” The crowd roared ”no" in reply.

Some of Colorado’s Democratic leaders accused Trump and other Republicans of overstating problems in Aurora.

“What is occurring is minimal and isolated. And to be clear, it’s never acceptable, right? We never say any level is acceptable,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. “But it’s not a surge. It’s not a change. There is no takeover of any part of this city, of any apartment complex. It has not happened. It is a lie.”

Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also have spread falsehoods about a community in Springfield, Ohio, where they said Haitian immigrants were accused of stealing and eating pets.

"It’s like an invasion from within, and we’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country, and we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora,” Trump said last month in a news conference in California.

While Ohio and Colorado are not competitive in the presidential race, the Republican message on immigration is intended for states that are. Vance campaigned recently in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a city of 70,000 that has resettled refugees from Africa and Asia, and touted Trump's plan to ramp up deportations. He argues smaller communities have been “overrun” by immigrants taxing local resources.

Trump has vowed to deport not only “criminals,” a promise he shares with Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival, but also Haitians living legally in Springfield and even people he has denigrated as “pro-Hamas radicals” protesting on college campuses. Trump has said he would revoke the temporary protected status that allows Haitians to stay in the U.S. because of widespread poverty and violence in their home nation.

Trump repeatedly faults Harris and President Joe Biden for allowing record high numbers of arrivals, saying that is fueling violent crime, though numbers show a continued downward trend after a coronavirus pandemic-era crime spike.

On the campaign trail, Trump uses specific cases of murders or attacks where suspects are immigrants who arrived in the country illegally. He has referred to them as “animals,” and earlier this week suggested that those suspected in homicide cases “have bad genes.”

Chris Haynes, an associate professor of political science at University of New Haven, who wrote a book about public opinion on immigration policies and has studied the former president’s messaging on immigration, says that is part of what he calls “episodic branding." It may prompt some moderate voters to reassess who they want to support, he said.

“What’s worked for him from the very beginning is to vilify immigrants, but also to try to make people feel like they’re a threat,” said Haynes, saying some of the rhetoric also appeals to low propensity voters that are part of his base.

Harris, for her part, was wrapping up a three-day western swing with a campaign event Friday in Scottsdale, Arizona. She also participated virtually in a White House briefing with President Biden on the recovery effort from hurricanes Milton and Helene.

“The bottom line is this: We are in this for the long haul,” said Harris as she sought to reassure those who endured losses from the hurricane that they would get help from the government.

Biden went after Trump, saying that he's “just the biggest mouth” for disinformation about the government's response to the hurricanes. The president added that the disinformation is a "permanent state of being for some extreme people," but that he believes the country as a whole wants facts and bipartisan cooperation to address natural disasters.

Just as Biden did before he abandoned his reelection bid, Democrat Harris has tacked to the right on immigration, presenting herself as a candidate who can be tough on policing the border, which is perceived as one of her biggest vulnerabilities.

Gomez reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Supporters of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump check their mobile devices before Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Supporters wait to enter to see Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speak at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump departs a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Supporters queue up to attend a rally with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)