US President Donald Trump to Meet Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at White House

Kathmandu. US President Donald Trump will meet Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House on Tuesday.

This meeting comes as Israel begins to withdraw some of its troops from southern Lebanon in accordance with the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States.

Joseph Aoun will be the first Lebanese president to visit the White House since 2009. The objective of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement is to end the ongoing fighting in southern Lebanon and gradually transfer control of the region from the Israeli army to the Lebanese army.

War has been ongoing between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah since early March. The first phase of the agreement stipulates that Israel must withdraw its troops from some areas near the so-called Yellow Line.

The Israeli army has stated that it handed over the security responsibility of three villages in southern Lebanon to the Lebanese army on Monday. President Trump is trying to arrange a historic meeting between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, President Aoun has insisted that he will not participate in such a meeting unless Israeli troops are extensively withdrawn from southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, an Israeli army official said that even if troops are withdrawn, military action will continue if necessary to remove any security threat seen in southern Lebanon.