By Nandita Bose, Maya Gebeily and Tom Perry
WASHINGTON/BEIRUT, July 21 (Reuters) - Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met U.S. President Donald Trump for the first time on Tuesday, when the two leaders huddled to discuss plans to disarm the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and secure Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon.
Aoun, who served as the commander of Lebanon's U.S.-backed army before being elected president last year, became the first Lebanese head of state to visit the White House in nearly 20
years when he met Trump.
His nearly two-hour visit to the White House came as Israeli troops occupy a swath of the country's south and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese remain displaced following Israeli strikes. Hezbollah has rejected the government's direct talks with Israel as well as efforts by the state to disarm it.
"It's been a very badly treated place and country, and we're going to have it properly treated and treated with respect that it deserves," Trump said as he met Aoun in the White House's Oval Office. "There's a Hezbollah problem."
A MONTH-OLD AGREEMENT BROKERED BY WASHINGTON
In a Washington meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday, Aoun said Israel should begin withdrawing from southern Lebanon in line with a U.S.-brokered June 26 agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
That deal aims to disarm Hezbollah, see a progressive Israeli troop withdrawal and set the stage for peaceful ties between the two countries.
But it remained unclear how Aoun could persuade or force Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982, to give up its weapons. Once Lebanon's dominant political and military force, the group's influence has waned since Israel's 2024 offensive against it and the fall of its Syrian ally, former President Bashar al-Assad.
Hours ahead of Aoun's meeting with Trump, Lebanese army troops began taking control of territory vacated by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon — the first test of the plan.
A Lebanese official said Aoun believes only Trump possesses the leverage needed to pressure Israel to withdraw its troops and help Lebanon restore its sovereignty. Washington is Israel's most important ally and principal arms supplier.
The official said that Aoun, in addition to asking the U.S. president to press Israel to withdraw, would also present Trump with a written proposal on how to decommission Hezbollah's massive arsenal.
"This will be your legacy," Aoun told Trump in front of reporters as their meeting got under way. "Together, we will be able to achieve this objective. It's about time for Lebanon and the whole region to be stable and secure."
Trump said he would be willing to speak with Hezbollah's leaders if Aoun thought doing so would be helpful.
He also suggested that Syria may have a role to play in disarming Hezbollah. "Well, it's a concept," Trump said, in response to a reporter's question.
SEEKING HEZBOLLAH'S DISARMAMENT
As president, Aoun, a Maronite Christian, has focused on relations with Israel and disarming Hezbollah, which has fought numerous wars with Israel and long operated as a military force independent of the Lebanese state.
The urgency of those efforts increased after a new war erupted this year when Hezbollah fired at Israel on March 2 in support of Iran, which came under U.S. and Israeli attack on February 28.
Israel struck back with an air and ground campaign that has killed more than 4,300 people, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
Aoun called for direct talks with Israel, a historic departure for a state repeatedly invaded by Israel since 1978. It led to the highest-level face-to-face contacts between the two countries in decades.
Aoun has criticized Hezbollah for starting the war and has said Lebanon was being destroyed for the sake of Iran. Still, he has stopped short of agreeing to Trump's call for him to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
(Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean, Will Dunham and Cynthia Osterman)
