Lebanese President Joseph Aoun appealed for U.S. support for the Lebanese army during a White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, while also warning of the political risks involved in confronting Hezbollah without destabilizing Lebanon’s sectarian balance.
In talks that took place as Israel began withdrawing from the first “pilot zone” in Lebanon’s occupied south, Trump pledged U.S. help for the Lebanese army but again suggested Syria could also help fight Hezbollah, an idea that has alarmed some in Lebanon by reviving memories of Syria’s decades-long occupation.
Aoun used his opening remarks to tell Trump he had been looking forward to meeting “such a great president,” drawing mirth from Trump.
“See, he knows how to get to me,” he said. “Now he can have anything.”
Trump described Lebanon as “a very mistreated country for a long period of time.” But he said that he knew many “very smart” and “very successful” people who refused to leave the country despite the near-constant conflict.
“We are going to solve a lot of problems,” Trump told Aoun. “We’ve already solved some of them for Lebanon, as you know. There’s a Hezbollah problem, but we’ve done some things that I think the world will take notice.”
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa “would like to come in and do something with Hezbollah,” Trump added, explaining that Syrian forces had been fighting the Iran-backed group for years and could help Lebanon’s army disarm them.
Trump’s proposal has drawn concern in Lebanon, while both Lebanese officials and Sharaa himself have rejected any Syrian intervention in Lebanon. Syria’s military previously entered Lebanon in 1976 during the civil war and remained until 2005, exercising sweeping military and political control in the country. For many Lebanese, the prospect of Syrian military involvement therefore evokes memories of occupation and civil war rather than outside assistance.
Aoun did not respond directly to Trump’s suggestion.
His primary message, he said, was that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) need further U.S. support to help disarm Hezbollah in the country’s south, which Israel and U.S. officials say is necessary for Israel to end its occupation.
The army’s “most powerful weapon” was “the trust of the public,” Aoun told Trump, describing it as the backbone of Lebanon’s security and stability.
“Without the LAF, everything will collapse,” he said. “We don’t want that.”
Tuesday’s talks came as the first phase of the U.S.-brokered “pilot zone” plan began, with LAF troops deploying to Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh as Israeli forces pulled back. The deal was immediately tested when Israeli troops fired near a Lebanese army engineering unit, although no casualties or injuries were reported.
Israel said troops fired warning shots into the air after Lebanese forces and a vehicle crossed into an Israeli-held area it said was not part of the pilot zone.
Israel first invaded Lebanon in early March after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in the wake of the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran. About 1.2 million Lebanese civilians have since been displaced by the occupation, with 4,328 Lebanese people killed, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
After months of talks in Washington, Israel pledged to withdraw from select “pilot zones” to allow the LAF to instead disarm Hezbollah. But the deal remains in its infancy, and faces intense opposition within both Lebanon and Israel.
Aoun has subsequently been left balancing both U.S. and Israeli pressure to disarm Hezbollah against the risk that using the LAF to do so could fracture Lebanon’s delicate sectarian order and provoke renewed civil war.
Asked by a reporter at the White House about criticism from Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri – who is also the leader of the Shiite Amal movement and a Hezbollah ally – Aoun appeared to defend the speaker.
Berri described the provisions of the “pilot zone” deal between Israel and Lebanon as “diktats” last month and said they may “incite internal divisions” if Lebanese forces are seen fighting alongside Israel’s military against Hezbollah. Only a U.S.-Iran peace deal could end the Israel-Hezbollah war, he said.
Aoun pointed to Berri’s critical role within Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, which reserves the speakership for a Shiite Muslim, the presidency for a Maronite Christian and the prime ministership for a Sunni Muslim.
The speaker, hailing from Lebanon’s south, in fact “really wants to see the end of this war” with Israel and supported the government’s overall efforts, Aoun said.
“But we need to be careful,” he added. “His position as speaker and as a leader of the Shiite community – we have to understand how critical his position is.”
The talks at the White House ended a four-day trip to Washington for Aoun, during which the Lebanese president also met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who oversaw the signing of the “pilot zone” deal last month.
Rubio said Sunday that the Trump administration’s hope was for Aoun to be able to return to Beirut and show that only the Lebanese government — and not Tehran-backed Hezbollah — was able to deliver security to the public.
“How do you defeat Hezbollah?” he said. “You defeat and replace them with a government strong enough to be the sole force of arms in the country, basically with the security of Lebanon in the hands of the Lebanese Armed Forces.”
The gap between that ambition and the reality on the ground became visible within hours of the “pilot zone” launch.
The first Israeli withdrawals showed that the “pilot zone” process will repeatedly place Israeli troops, Lebanese soldiers and Hezbollah fighters in close proximity, creating new opportunities for confrontation and miscalculation.
Aoun, meanwhile, is left responsible for delivering an outcome that Washington and Israel demand while preventing the LAF – and Lebanon itself – being drawn further into the sideshow of a regional conflict he played no part in starting.
