Seoul Gazette - Lebanon's Aoun to meet Trump as pressure builds to disarm Hezbollah

It comes a day after the United States, which has sponsored negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, announced the start of the implementation of an agreement granting the Lebanese army control over "pilot zones" in southern Lebanon.

These zones are primarily located just outside lands Israel occupied after Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March.

Aoun, who has staunchly criticised Hezbollah's decision to pull Lebanon into war, is now hoping Trump will further pressure Israel to withdraw from occupied Lebanese lands.

Israel has nonetheless consistently refused to pull out as long as Hezbollah remains armed -- a demand echoed by Washington.

"As long as that problem exists, Lebanon will never truly get peace," US State Secretary Marco Rubio said after meeting Aoun on Sunday.

In an earlier statement, Rubio "commended the courage of the Government of Lebanon... for their determined effort to reclaim Lebanon's sovereignty, disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure".

Aoun is the first Lebanese president to be invited to Washington since 2009.

Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, said that while the meeting "demonstrates a continued US interest in Lebanon", it "raises a lot of concern around what more Lebanon may be asked to do".

- 'Deeply disadvantageous' -

Aoun, a former army commander, has vowed to disarm Hezbollah since being elected as president in early 2025 with Western support, marking a major political shift in Lebanon.

However, Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected disarmament.

The group triggered the latest war in March, and Israeli strikes have since killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon, according to authorities.

Violence has significantly decreased after the signing of a framework agreement between the US and Iran last month, along with Lebanon's continued negotiations with Israel.

Under the agreement, the Israeli military is to withdraw from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese army is to deploy, starting with two "pilot zones".

But the deal is contingent on the disarmament of Hezbollah, which has flatly rejected both the deal and the Israel-Lebanon negotiations that underpin it.

Yahya believes the agreement is "deeply disadvantageous" to Lebanon.

Iran, which insisted on including Lebanon in its April ceasefire with Washington, has been trading renewed strikes with the US since July 7.

Aoun is also expected to ask for more aid to the Lebanese army, given the difficult task of disarming Hezbollah.

In exchange, Trump would "no doubt want to hear additional evidence of Aoun's seriousness" in disarming the group, wrote Robert Satloff, executive director at the Washington Institute.

Satloff said Trump would also want guarantees that Aoun would root out army officers believed to be complicit with Hezbollah, and eventually reach peace with Israel.

He added that Aoun's visit would also allow him to "put a stake through the heart of a dangerous idea that seems to have grabbed Trump's imagination: empowering Syria to dispatch troops into Lebanon to supposedly quash Hezbollah".

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa had previously said that his country had no intention to intervene in Lebanon, despite Trump's repeated calls for him to do so.

K.Im--SG