US President Donald Trump is set to host Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House on Tuesday, as Beirut seeks to persuade Washington to do more to secure the implementation of a fragile framework agreement with Israel.
The visit, Mr Aoun's first to Washington since taking office last year, follows two days of US-mediated talks in Rome that ended without a timetable for the agreement to be implemented.
At the centre of the discussions is the proposed withdrawal of Israeli troops from two “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon, in exchange for the disarmament of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
Mr Aoun is seeking US guarantees that Washington will press Israel to implement the framework agreement signed on June 26, along with commitments towards an imminent Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.
“The territorial integrity of Lebanon and its sovereignty will be at the forefront of President's Aoun's agenda,” a Lebanese official told The National.
Mr Aoun is also expected to push for a reconstruction and relief package after large areas of southern Lebanon were devastated by Israeli strikes, as well as greater US support for the Lebanese Armed Forces.
At least 4,250 people have been killed in Lebanon since March, according to the government, while about a million others have been displaced.
The two pilot zones are outside the so-called security zone that was occupied by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon after Hezbollah began launching rockets into northern Israel in response to the outbreak of the Iran war earlier this year.
Israel has insisted it will not leave Lebanon until it is satisfied that Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.
Hezbollah has rejected the framework agreement outright and opposes any effort to disarm under the current terms.
Lebanese officials fear Israel could prolong the process by attaching additional security conditions to each stage of its withdrawal.
On Friday, an online meeting between Lebanese and Israeli military delegations to discuss the first pilot zones was postponed, drawing more concerns.
Mr Trump, who has struggled to bring the conflict to an end on his own terms, has criticised the scale of Israel's military operations in Lebanon, saying the attacks have complicated broader regional diplomacy, including efforts involving Iran. But he has shown little willingness to publicly pressure Israel.
Asked last week whether Israel should withdraw from southern Lebanon, Mr Trump instead embraced the language of the agreement.
“'Redeploy' is another word,” he told Fox News. “Yeah, it would be good to get out, and I think you might see things get a little bit calmer, because we have to focus our energy on the big leagues. The big leagues are Iran.”
Mr Aoun is also facing growing domestic criticism over the agreement, with opponents arguing it places heavy obligations on Lebanon while offering few concrete guarantees from Israel.
The 14-clause framework refers to an Israeli “redeployment” rather than a “withdrawal”, which critics say implicitly legitimises Israel's military presence in Lebanese territory.
Another controversial provision limits Lebanon's ability to pursue legal action against Israel over its operations during the conflict.
“This new agreement undermines Lebanese sovereignty, fails to require an Israeli military withdrawal from Lebanon, risks further conflict, and jeopardises pathways to accountability for victims of war crimes,” the Tahrir Institute and 18 other organisations said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The current agreement significantly weakens the Lebanese government’s domestic credibility at a time when they need strong public backing to succeed in their historic efforts to disarm Hezbollah and strengthen the Lebanese state.”
Sami Halabi, director of policy at the Beirut-based think tank Badil, said Mr Aoun is hoping continued diplomacy will persuade the US to secure meaningful concessions from Israel, despite having little practical influence over either country.
“'A rock and a hard place' is probably an understatement,” Mr Halabi said.
He argued US policy has long been driven by an overly narrow focus on Hezbollah.
“The United States' policy on Lebanon is based on one simple principle: Hezbollah is the problem. We get rid of them, we get rid of the problem.”
Mr Halabi said Washington has yet to develop a broader strategy that would strengthen the Lebanese state's monopoly on arms while also deterring Israel from future military action.
The current diplomatic track emerged after the collapse of the broader US-Iran negotiations, which had initially linked progress in Lebanon to wider ceasefire discussions.
While Mr Aoun had opposed Lebanon being included in those talks because it risked legitimising Iran's role, the collapse of that process has left Lebanon with a separate negotiating framework that can continue independently.
Analysts say Mr Aoun's greatest asset remains his credibility as head of the Lebanese state and as a counterweight to Hezbollah.
Speaking to Fox News, Mr Trump once again suggested that Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara could play a role in confronting Hezbollah.
“He would go in and take care of Hezbollah, and he'd do it in a different way. He wouldn't knock down buildings. I'd hate to see buildings knocked down,” Mr Trump said.
“I think he'd be more precise. I know he'd like to do it.”
Mr Aoun is unlikely to support Mr Al Shara taking on such a role, particularly given Lebanon's fraught history with Syria. Mr Al Shara and other senior Syrian officials have repeatedly said that they are not interested in intervening militarily in Lebanon.
Lebanese media reported on Thursday, quoting sources, that Mr Aoun intends to tell Mr Trump that relations with Syria should remain limited to official ties and co-ordination, without granting Damascus any security authority in Lebanon.
