Lebanon's Aoun seeks US backing for Israeli withdrawal, Hezbollah disarmament

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun has begun a series of high-level meetings in Washington, holding talks with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as Beirut looks for US backing to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and secure an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

Aoun told Rubio on Sunday that Lebanon and the US needed to work together to put the US-backed agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel on June 26 into effect, starting with an initial Israeli troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon, according to an X post from the Lebanese presidency.

Rubio praised the Lebanese government’s “determined efforts to reclaim Lebanon’s sovereignty, disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure and move towards peace,” according to a statement from the US State Department after the meeting.

Aoun and First Lady Naima Aoun arrived at Joint Base Andrews on Saturday at the start of the official visit, according to the Lebanese presidency.

Aoun is expected to meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday and hold talks with members of the US Senate and other administration officials.

It is the first visit to Washington by a Lebanese head of state since Michel Sleiman met President Barack Obama in 2009.

It comes at a pivotal moment for Lebanon, where Israeli troops remain in parts of the south months after the latest war with Hezbollah, complicating efforts by Beirut to reassert state control, while hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced.

According to a Lebanese official who spoke to Reuters, Aoun plans to present Trump with a written proposal outlining how Hezbollah’s arsenal could be dismantled while securing Israel’s withdrawal under the US-brokered agreement.

Before leaving Beirut, Aoun said he would urge Trump to “exert the necessary pressure on Israel” to implement the agreement, which envisions the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual Israeli troop withdrawal, and a path towards more stable relations between the two countries.

The same official told Reuters that Aoun believes Trump is uniquely placed to pressure Israel into withdrawing its troops and helping Lebanon restore its sovereignty.

The Washington visit follows another round of US-mediated talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials in Rome earlier this week, where negotiators discussed how to implement the June framework.

The negotiations have exposed the challenges facing Aoun’s government. Hezbollah has rejected Lebanon’s direct negotiations with Israel and efforts to strip the group of its arms, while Israel has insisted it will not fully withdraw unless Hezbollah is disarmed and demilitarised.

Aoun, 62, is a former commander of Lebanon’s US-backed armed forces who was elected president last year after more than two years without a head of state. His election reflected a major shift in Lebanon’s political landscape after Israel’s 2024 offensive weakened Hezbollah and the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deprived the Iran-backed group of one of its closest regional allies.

In his swearing-in ceremony, Aoun vowed to restore what he called the state’s “monopoly on arms”, making the disarmament of Hezbollah a defining goal of his presidency.

Lebanese troops later deployed across parts of southern Lebanon to collect Hezbollah weapons caches under a ceasefire agreement following the 2024 war.

But those efforts were complicated after fighting flared again in March, when Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in support of Iran, which was under attack by Israel and the US. This triggered another Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

Aoun has since openly criticised Hezbollah for dragging Lebanon into a war. In a virtual meeting with European Union officials in March, he said the group places “no value on Lebanon’s interest nor on the life of its people” and that it was working “for the sake of the calculations of the Iranian regime”

He quickly called for direct talks with Israel, a significant break from Lebanese policy following repeated invasions by Israel since 1978. The moves have drawn fierce criticism from Hezbollah and its supporters, even as Aoun has stopped short of Trump’s calls for him to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.