WASHINGTON — The Trump administration's decision to lift a four-decade-old ban on commercial flights between the United States and Lebanon will allow American airlines to again serve Beirut for the first time since the 1980s.

US officials are to conduct an extensive security review before flights can resume, but it remains highly unlikely carriers including United, Delta or American will rush into a market still grappling with security concerns, Israeli military operations and limited commercial demand. The White House's move is more of a symbolic gesture designed to bolster confidence in Lebanon's new government at a pivotal moment. 

“I think it's a positive indicator,” Paul Shaya, a former US State Department and CIA official now at George Washington University, told Al-Monitor. “It just means now that the possibility exists, and I think what you're seeing really is an opening from the United States.”

Coming alongside Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's White House visit, the flight decision signals how the Trump administration is prepared to reward progress under a US-brokered framework between Lebanon and Israel. Whether that political backing ultimately translates into the economic and financial support Lebanon desperately needs remains the bigger question.