This handout photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency press office shows Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with Admiral Brad Cooper (4th L), the commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), at the presidential palace in Baabda on June 29, 2026. Aoun told the US Central Command chief on June 29 that he was committed to extending the state’s control through its military up to the border with Israel, where Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah maintains a strong presence. (AFP)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun left Beirut Saturday for Washington, where he is expected to meet Donald Trump, his office said, after the latest round of Lebanon-Israel talks wrapped up in Italy.
It will be the first trip to Washington by a Lebanese head of state since Michel Sleiman was received by Barack Obama in 2009.
Aoun will hold discussions “with several American officials on the situation in Lebanon and ways to strengthen the ceasefire”, particularly in the south, as well as on “the withdrawal of Israel from the Lebanese regions it occupies”, the presidency said.
Israel and Lebanon — which do not have formal diplomatic relations — began US-sponsored negotiations in April aimed at reaching a peace deal and permanently ending the Israel-Hezbollah war.
On June 26, they reached a framework agreement in Washington under which the Israeli military is to withdraw from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese army is to deploy, starting with two “pilot zones”.
The agreement is contingent on the disarmament of Iran-backed group Hezbollah, which has flatly rejected the deal and the Israel-Lebanon negotiations.
Following the latest round of talks this week in Rome, Israel and Lebanon “agreed on the structure and guidelines” for implementing the pilot zones, a US official said.
A Lebanese military source told AFP that the army had begun intensifying patrols in several villages adjacent to areas occupied by Israeli forces, including Froun in Bint Jbeil district, in preparation for implementing the pilot zones provision.
Hezbollah held a rally in the coastal city of Tyre on Saturday to reiterate its rejection of the plan.
Hezbollah pulled Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2, when it began striking Israel in support of its backer Tehran.
Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion, and despite a ceasefire it continues sporadic attacks and holds territory in the south in what it describes as a “security zone”.
On Saturday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported fresh airstrikes against two towns located on the edge of the so-called security zone, in the Tyre and Nabatieh regions, and a large detonation near the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.
The Lebanese military said that a soldier was killed “as a result of the explosion of a suspicious object in an army vehicle” in Mansouri, which was also subjected to several Israeli strikes.
The US embassy, meanwhile, renewed its call for Americans to not travel to Lebanon, citing “high tensions in the Middle East”.
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