Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is in Washington, D.C., seeking US support for an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to assert control over areas long dominated by Hezbollah.
Aoun is scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, concluding his four-day visit. This follows another round of US-mediated talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials in Rome last week, where negotiators discussed implementing an agreement signed on June 26.
Aoun and his wife arrived at Joint Base Andrews on Saturday. This is the first visit by a Lebanese head of state to Washington since Michel Sleiman met President Barack Obama in 2009.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met Aoun on Sunday, said Washington would back the full implementation of the agreement, warning that Lebanon would "never be fully at peace" as long as the Hezbollah issue remains unresolved.
"How do you replace Hezbollah? You defeat and replace them with a government that is strong enough to be the sole force of arms in the country," Rubio said after the meeting.
Skeptics in Lebanon fear a military confrontation with Hezbollah could lead to civil war. Government officials have also urged investment in the country's battered infrastructure to empower the weakened state.
The Israeli military said on Monday that a gradual withdrawal plan, dubbed the "pilot zone program," had begun. The plan sees Israeli forces withdrawing from a small number of areas in southern Lebanon while remaining in others.
On Tuesday, a senior Lebanese security official told Reuters that troops had begun deploying in the southern town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh after Israeli forces withdrew from the area.
Hezbollah has rejected Lebanon's direct negotiations with Israel and efforts to disarm the group, while Israel insists it will not fully withdraw unless Hezbollah is disarmed and demilitarized.
Lebanon's government came to power on a reformist platform in early 2025, pledging to disarm all non-state groups, including Hezbollah. However, those efforts were complicated after fighting flared again in March.
Source: www.aljazeera.com