Washington cannot demand that Lebanon disarm Hezbollah while denying its government the diplomatic leverage and military strength required to do it.
By : The Editorial Board, Opinion
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will make his first visit to the White House this week carrying a written proposal to disarm Hezbollah and secure Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese territory. He will also become the first Lebanese president in nearly two decades to meet an American president at the White House. Reuters
President Donald Trump should recognize the importance of this moment—but he must also recognize the limits confronting Aoun.
It is unrealistic to expect the Lebanese Army, in its present condition, to disarm Hezbollah by force. Hezbollah possesses battle-hardened fighters, an entrenched military structure and weapons accumulated over decades with Iranian financing and assistance. Attempting to disarm it without overwhelming state authority could provoke internal conflict and destroy the very government Washington wants to strengthen.
Pressure alone is not a strategy. If the United States wants President Aoun to establish the state’s monopoly over arms, it must give him the means and political leverage to accomplish that objective.
Trump can help in two decisive ways.
First, he should pressure Israel to withdraw progressively from Lebanese territory as the Lebanese Army deploys and assumes security responsibility.
Israeli withdrawal would give Aoun something extraordinarily valuable: proof that peaceful negotiations can recover what Hezbollah’s wars could not.
For decades, Hezbollah justified its weapons by claiming that only “resistance” could defend Lebanon and liberate occupied territory. But its latest war brought destruction, displacement and further occupation. If Aoun can secure Israeli withdrawal through diplomacy, he will expose the central failure of Hezbollah’s argument.
That would strengthen the Lebanese state without firing a shot.
Every area transferred from Israeli control to the Lebanese Army would demonstrate that diplomacy serves Lebanon better than an armed organization taking orders from Tehran. It would also give Hezbollah’s own supporters a peaceful and honorable path back into the state.
Second, Trump should announce a major program to arm, equip and modernize the Lebanese Army.
The objective should not be to prepare the army for a civil war against Hezbollah. It should be to build a national institution so capable and credible that no community can continue claiming that a private militia is necessary for its protection.
Lebanon needs modern air defenses, surveillance systems, secure communications, border-control equipment, armored mobility, counter-drone capabilities and sustained training. Its soldiers also need salaries and institutional support sufficient to withstand Lebanon’s economic collapse.
America cannot insist that the Lebanese Army become the country’s only legitimate armed force while leaving it weaker and less equipped than the militia it is expected to replace.
Washington must put its money where its mouth is.
A serious military-assistance package would also send a clear message to Lebanese citizens: surrendering illegal weapons does not mean leaving the country defenseless. It means transferring responsibility for national defense to an army accountable to an elected government rather than to Iran.
Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam represent Lebanon’s best opportunity in decades to rebuild functioning state institutions, recover national sovereignty and move toward peaceful coexistence with Israel. They are not asking the United States to fight Lebanon’s battles. They are asking it to help make Lebanese sovereignty possible.
The alternative should concern Trump and every Western leader.
If Aoun and Salam fail because the international community demanded results without providing the necessary support, Lebanon could once again fall completely under Iranian domination—another country whose sovereignty is subordinated to Tehran, as occurred in Iraq, Yemen and, under the Assad regime, Syria.
Trump has an opportunity to prevent that outcome.
The best surprise he could offer President Aoun at the White House would not be another demand or deadline. It would be a firm American commitment to secure Israel’s withdrawal and transform the Lebanese Army into the sole credible defender of Lebanon.
Do not simply tell Aoun to finish the job.
Give him the means to do it.
