Aoun bolds Hezbollah in a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

AVA- "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. 
The visiting top US diplomat claimed that his pressure on Iran and Hezbollah was working and urged Lebanon to stand up to the resistance movement which he accused of "terror and threats.”
"Our pressure on Iran is simple. It's aimed at cutting off the funding for terrorists and it's working," he said in a statement after meeting Lebanese political leaders. "We believe that our work is already constraining Hezbollah's activities."
During a joint news conference with Lebanon's Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Pompeo called on Lebanon to pick a side.
"Lebanon and the Lebanese people face a choice: bravely move forward as an independent and proud nation or allow the dark ambitions of Iran and Hezbollah to dictate your future," he said. 
Bassil stood side by side with Pompeo at the new conference but he rejected the terrorist denunciation of the US official for Hezbollah. 
Bassil said he held "constructive and positive talks" with Pompeo but added that their were differences of perspective with regards to Hezbollah.
"Hezbollah is a Lebanese party, not a terrorist group, and it enjoys a wide popular base," he said.
"We don't want our ties with America to be affected and we want to work together to solve problems, including the issue with Hezbollah," he said.