President Joseph Aoun speaks at the Lebanese Embassy in Washington during a dinner held in his honor following a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, on July 21, 2026.
After his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, President Joseph Aoun attended a dinner held in his honor in Washington, during which he outlined several "conditions" for Hezbollah’s disarmament, insisting in particular on the reintegration of its members.
Before an audience of U.S. and Lebanese political figures, Aoun stated that Hezbollah's disarmament is "achievable, but only if we are realistic about the necessary conditions," recalling that the group is not a "foreign mercenary force, but is made up of Lebanese citizens shaped over forty years by substantial ideological, social, and military investment."
In view of this reality, he noted that other internal armed factions around the world have been disarmed, notably the FARC in Colombia or the IRA in Northern Ireland, thanks to a process combining "disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration."
However, according to him, what must first be done is to "eliminate the underlying cause invoked by Hezbollah to justify its existence, namely the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories." Next comes the "exclusive operational control of the territory by the Lebanese Army, which requires immediate and unconditional support for our armed forces. Finally, it ends with reintegration, through a reconstruction program led exclusively by the Lebanese state and accompanied by real economic prospects." "Only a strong state can fill the void that others would otherwise occupy," he added.
The most serious US commitment to Lebanon
For Aoun, the time is right to achieve these objectives. "For the first time in years, a real opportunity to make history presents itself to Lebanon," he said, praising the United States’ role in this context. "Under President Donald Trump and thanks to the trilateral framework negotiated between Lebanon and Israel last June, the United States today demonstrates its most serious commitment to Lebanon’s stability in decades," he said. The United States initiated the first direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel in decades, which resulted in the signing, on June 26, of a framework agreement providing for the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, conditioned on Hezbollah’s disarmament, based on "pilot zones."
The agreement began to be implemented Monday, with the deployment of Lebanese Army units in two of these zones in the central sector of southern Lebanon, in the villages of Srifa and Froun, in which occupying forces were not present, as well as in Zawtar Gharbieh, north of the Litani River, from which the Israelis have withdrawn.
Aoun also discussed restoring relations with Arab countries, two days after being invited to Riyadh by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and the desire to build a "state-to-state relationship with Syria."
Aoun, who was army commander-in-chief before taking office as president, also called on Washington to continue supporting the troops, "the only true national institution that has the trust of all Lebanese." "The army protects our land and maritime borders, defeated the Islamic State on our territory, fights drug trafficking, organized crime, and smuggling, ensures order in cooperation with the Internal Security Forces, and intervenes in every disaster," the Lebanese president listed.
Aoun delivered this speech shortly after a meeting with Donald Trump, who gave him a "warm" welcome and promised to "help Lebanon a great deal." From the embassy, raising a toast to the "friendship" between Beirut and Washington, the Lebanese president expressed hope that it would be "strong enough to rewrite the history of this region, once and for all."
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