Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will arrive at the White House this week for a crucial meeting with US President Donald Trump, with security, Hezbollah and Israel expected to dominate the agenda.
The meeting on Tuesday will mark the first White House visit by a Lebanese president in nearly two decades and comes at a pivotal moment for Lebanon, where Israeli troops remain deployed in parts of the south and Hezbollah continues to resist efforts to surrender its weapons.
According to Reuters, Aoun will present Trump with a written proposal detailing how Lebanon plans to disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah. He is also expected to urge the US president to use Washington's influence to press Israel into completing its troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
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Last week, Aoun said he would ask Trump to exert the necessary pressure on Israel to implement the US-brokered June 26 agreement between Lebanon and Israel. The deal envisages Hezbollah's gradual disarmament, a phased Israeli withdrawal and lays the groundwork for future peaceful ties between the two countries.
Lebanese officials believe Trump is uniquely positioned to push Israel towards fulfilling its commitments under the agreement, Reuters reported.
The visit comes as hundreds of thousands of Lebanese remain displaced following Israeli military operations, while Hezbollah has rejected both direct negotiations with Israel and government efforts to dismantle its arsenal.
Aoun, a former commander of Lebanon's US-backed armed forces, has made restoring the state's authority a central priority since taking office last year. At his swearing-in ceremony, he pledged to uphold the state's right to a monopoly on arms, signalling his intent to bring all weapons under state control.
His presidency has coincided with a dramatic shift in Lebanon's political landscape after Israel's 2024 offensive significantly weakened Hezbollah and the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, one of the group's closest regional allies.
Those efforts suffered a setback after Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in March in support of Iran, triggering another round of conflict. Aoun later criticised Hezbollah for dragging Lebanon into war, saying the country was being destroyed for the sake of Iran, Reuters reported.
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The Lebanese president has also broken with past policy by backing direct talks with Israel, leading to the highest-level contacts between the two countries in decades. However, he has stopped short of accepting Trump's suggestion that he meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Beyond security, Aoun is expected to highlight Lebanon's broader reform agenda. The former army chief has pledged to revive the crisis-hit economy and deliver justice for victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion.
Tuesday's talks will be closely watched for signs of whether the Trump administration is prepared to play a more active role in reshaping Lebanon's security landscape and advancing the Israel-Lebanon agreement, Reuters reported.
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