President Joseph Aoun at the exit of a Cabinet meeting at the Baabda Presidential Palace, on Feb. 16, 2026. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — President Joseph Aoun said Monday that he would personally ask his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, to pressure Israel to have its army fully withdraw from Lebanon, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Speaking before a delegation from the board of directors of the Amilieh Association, the head of state stated that "the objectives on which all Lebanese agree are withdrawal [by Israel], the return of the displaced, the repatriation of prisoners and remains, as well as reconstruction," adding that "now it is necessary to try this path after the failure of the military option."
"As the president of all Lebanese, I reaffirm that I will not give up the South nor the rights of Lebanon. That is why we insist on Israel’s withdrawal from all Lebanese territory and on Israel signing a commitment confirming it has no designs on Lebanon," he continued. Aoun is scheduled to travel to Washington at the end of July to meet Donald Trump, marking the first meeting between the two men after multiple phone exchanges.
"I will ask American President Donald Trump to exert the necessary pressure on Israel so it implements what was agreed to in the 'framework formula' as well as the Lebanese demands, while taking advantage of the current willingness of the American administration to achieve peace in the region and to strengthen Lebanon's position in this context," he said.
He reiterated that "the army and the state are the only ones capable of protecting the Lebanese," as opposed to political parties and sectarianism, "as we have seen from 1975 until today," he stressed. He added, "The disappeared Imam Moussa Sadr was the first to oppose the South being used for causes that are not Lebanese," stressing that "the inhabitants of the South are exhausted and deserve to live in security and stability, rather than seeing their property and lands regularly destroyed and their sons martyred. Why should Lebanon and the South always pay the price?"
A Lebanese delegation is preparing to participate this week in a new round of negotiations with Israel, to be held in Rome with U.S. mediators, as implementation of the provisions of the framework agreement signed at the end of June between the two governments has been slow to progress, due to Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the two "pilot zones" defined in occupied southern Lebanon, control of which is to be transferred to the Lebanese Army.
However, the agreement does not set a timetable for this withdrawal and conditions it on the verified disarmament of Hezbollah, which has completely rejected it.
