Overview
- President Joseph Aoun met Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Sunday and is due to meet President Trump on Tuesday to press for U.S. leverage to enforce the June 26 framework.
- The Washington framework envisions staged Israeli redeployments from southern Lebanon followed by Lebanese Armed Forces deployments to two pilot zones, but it contains no firm timetable or agreed verification steps.
- Implementation is explicitly conditional on Hezbollah giving up its weapons, a demand Hezbollah has publicly rejected and that has left the plan at a practical impasse.
- Israeli forces remain inside a self-described security zone and continue limited strikes while the Lebanese army has increased patrols in border villages as it prepares for possible handovers.
- The visit tests U.S. influence: Aoun will present a written proposal to decommission Hezbollah’s arsenal and seek security and reconstruction aid as Lebanon faces thousands of deaths and mass displacement since March.