Visiting Lebanon PM seeks to temper Washington’s anti-Hezbollah zeal
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is fighting back against aid cuts and new sanctions.
Lebanon is pushing back against US pressure on Hezbollah for fear that efforts from the Donald Trump administration and Congress could destabilize the fragile state.
The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) face the prospect of losing all military assistance under the State Department's fiscal year 2018 budget request, while Congress is taking new action to expand sanctions on Hezbollah. The cuts to the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program would hit the country particularly hard, as the LAF, with the help of Hezbollah, is securing the war-torn Syrian border from the Islamic State (IS), al-Qaeda and other militants.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is in Washington this week to lobby against both threats.
“I will be going to the Congress tomorrow and talking to both parties and I believe that there are already enough sanctions on Lebanon and in the banking sector,” Hariri told Al-Monitor today following his remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “We need to immediately explain to Congress why this is important … and we will do that and I’m confident Congress will hopefully listen to some of the remarks that we’ll have.”
