The United States announced on Monday that pilot zones had come into effect in three southern Lebanese villages—Frun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiya—under the trilateral framework agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel in June. On Tuesday morning, Lebanese army units, including engineering corps, entered Zawtar al-Gharbiya after Israeli forces withdrew from the area, the army’s command confirmed. Troops began sweeping for unexploded ordnance and securing entry points, while residents were instructed to stay away until the security situation stabilised. The move coincides with President Joseph Aoun’s scheduled meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, the first visit by a Lebanese head of state to Washington since 2009.

Viewed from Washington, the pilot zones represent a direct outcome of last week’s negotiations in Rome and a mechanism to test the Lebanese state’s ability to assume security control. US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have framed the process as inseparable from the disarmament of Hezbollah, with Rubio stating that Lebanon “will not truly enjoy peace” as long as the group’s military capacity persists. Israeli officials, for their part, have conditioned any full withdrawal on the complete removal of Hezbollah’s arsenal and have signalled that forces will remain in a 10‑kilometre-deep security zone until that condition is met. Lebanese diplomatic sources, however, indicate that Aoun intends to secure a clear presidential commitment that the pilot zones are the beginning of a sequenced, automatic withdrawal process—not a piecemeal arrangement that could freeze into a de facto partial occupation. Beirut will argue that the army’s deployment proves state readiness and that the monopoly on weapons is a sovereign Lebanese decision, not a concession extracted by Israel.

The framework agreement does not set a timeline for full withdrawal, leaving each phase dependent on field arrangements and security understandings. Lebanese officials fear that Israel may exploit technical conditions to slow the process or entrench a long-term presence in the south. To counter this, Aoun is expected to propose a cascade mechanism whereby the successful handover of one zone triggers the automatic transition to the next, without returning to political negotiations each time. Western diplomats in Beirut note that the pilot zones are viewed by the Lebanese presidency as a sovereignty test: if the process halts at its first boundaries, it risks becoming a mere management of occupation rather than a path to full territorial recovery.

Beyond the immediate military disengagement, the Aoun-Trump talks are set to address long-term US support for the Lebanese armed forces, reconstruction of war-damaged areas, and Lebanon’s positioning in a rapidly shifting regional order. The war, triggered by Hezbollah’s rocket attack on Israel on 2 March in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, has killed over 4,300 people in Lebanon and displaced large populations. The US administration views Aoun’s presidency as an opportunity to rebuild the Lebanese state around a military institution that enjoys internal trust and external backing, but it expects concrete steps on disarmament. The outcome of the White House meeting is likely to shape the pace of the pilot zone rollout and the broader trajectory of the US-brokered framework.