Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday and handover a plan to disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah group while seeking U.S. pressure on Israel to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon.
The visit marks the first by a Lebanese head of state to the White House in nearly 20 years and comes as Lebanon faces continued Israeli military presence in parts of the south, prolonged displacement of civilians and political divisions over Hezbollah’s future.
A day before the meeting, the United States said that pilot zone operations had begun in the Lebanese villages of Froun, Srifa and Zawtar Al-Gharbiya under the Trilateral Framework and with the oversight of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon.
The U.S. said the move followed discussions between Israel and Lebanon in Rome and that Washington would continue working with both sides to implement the framework.
Aoun, a former army commander who was elected president last year, will likely ask Trump that Lebanon needs Israel to complete a withdrawal agreed under a US-brokered arrangement, while also outlining steps to bring Hezbollah’s arsenal under state authority.
The White House meeting comes after U.S.-mediated discussions between Lebanese and Israeli officials in Rome on implementing the June framework agreement. Israel has said it will not complete its withdrawal unless Hezbollah is disarmed, while Hezbollah has rejected direct negotiations with Israel and efforts to strip it of its weapons.
A Lebanese cabinet session earlier this month reviewed the army’s plan to disarm Hezbollah, including measures to expand state control over weapons across the country.
A Lebanese official said Aoun believes Trump has the leverage needed to pressure Israel to pull back and help Lebanon restore its sovereignty.
The White House meeting follows Aoun’s discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Sunday, during which he said Israel should begin withdrawing from southern Lebanon in line with the June 26 agreement between the two countries.
That framework calls for Hezbollah’s disarmament, a phased Israeli withdrawal and steps toward a more stable relationship between Lebanon and Israel.
The talks come at a time when Israeli forces remain deployed in parts of southern Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese remain displaced after Israeli strikes, and Hezbollah has rejected direct government efforts to surrender its weapons.
Aoun has made state control over arms a central theme of his presidency, pledging at his inauguration to uphold “the state’s right to a monopoly on arms.”
The Lebanese army has deployed forces in southern areas to secure Hezbollah weapons sites under a ceasefire arrangement following the 2024 war, with the group weakened after heavy fighting with Israel and the fall of its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad.
Aoun, 62, rose to the presidency after years as commander of Lebanon’s U.S.-supported army. His election reflected a shift in Lebanon’s political balance after Hezbollah suffered major losses in its 2024 conflict with Israel.
The Lebanese government has tasked the army with developing a roadmap for removing unauthorized weapons from across the country.
At a cabinet meeting in Baabda, ministers discussed the military’s plan to gradually extend state authority over armed groups and consolidate weapons under Lebanese institutions.
The process remains politically sensitive, with Hezbollah and its supporters opposing moves they view as weakening the group’s ability to resist Israel.
