LEBANESE President Joseph Aoun left for Washington on Saturday for critical talks with his US counterpart Donald Trump as he attempts to end the fighting between Israel and resistance group Hezbollah.

It will be the first visit to the US capital by a Lebanese head of state since Michel Sleiman met then-president Barack Obama in 2009.

The talks with President Trump and other senior officials next week are aimed at finding ways to strengthen the ceasefire, secure Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and “restore security and stability” across the country, according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency.

The talks are also likely to focus on how to extend the authority of the Lebanese state across the territory as fighting between Hezbollah and the Israelis shows no sign of halting.

Lebanese and Israeli officials concluded another round of US-mediated talks in Rome late last week.

US officials said the two sides had agreed on the next steps for creating “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops would begin withdrawing, and the Lebanese army would take over security.

But the agreement sets no deadline for Israeli forces to leave even though Tel Aviv has made it clear that it has no intention of ending its occupation of southern Lebanon which it regards as a so-called “security buffer” against Hezbollah attacks.

Hezbollah has rejected both the negotiations and the framework agreement as a betrayal of the Lebanese people.

The resistance group has also refused all calls for it to disarm, which is part of the agreement.

Meanwhile, the Israelis have continued to carry out air attacks on southern Lebanon.

Lebanese media reported two towns on the edge of the zone in the Tyre and Nabatieh regions were targeted by the Israelis on Saturday.

The Israeli military claimed in a statement that it struck a Hezbollah cell near Tebnit in southern Lebanon after soldiers identified a Hezbollah drone in the area, adding that the activity violated ceasefire understandings.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

The latest war grew out of months of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that followed the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023.

The conflict escalated into a full-scale war in March after the US and Israel attacked Iran.

More than 4,000 Lebanese have been killed and more than a million displaced by Israel’s war on Lebanon since March, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.