An internal divide in the Trump administration over American aid to Lebanon is reaching a breaking point as Lebanon forms a government controlled by the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.
The State Department's concession to Congress that it would commit to halting financial aid to Lebanon if U.S. taxpayer dollars go to Hezbollah is now being brought to the forefront.
The administration released hundreds of millions of dollars to Lebanon in late December over the objections of Trump loyalists in the National Security Council and State Department, who feared the money is directly aiding Hezbollah and its allies embedded in the Lebanese government, sources confirmed.
David Hale, the State Department's undersecretary of state for political affairs, drew a red line in recent meetings with Lebanese officials, telling them the Trump administration would deny aid to any Lebanese government controlled by Hezbollah, according to Lebanese media reports.
According to documents viewed by the Free Beacon, Cruz leveraged the nomination of Dorothy Shea, the State Department nominee to be the next ambassador to Lebanon, to obtain a written commitment that the United States will ensure that "Assistance does not benefit Hezbollah" and that even locally targeted aid will only go to municipalities that "Are not controlled by Hezbollah or any other designated foreign terrorist organization."
"Any future aid to Lebanon will rightly be viewed as a dramatic reversal. The President would be right to ask why Deep State actors embedded in the State and Defense Departments are gutting his maximum pressure campaign against Iran by financing Hezbollah, while hawks on the Hill would accuse the administration of a bait-and-switch."
"Whereas in the past it put forward faces more amenable to the U.S. and Europe, such as former prime minister Saad Hariri, and divvied up portfolios among all the major actors of the Lebanese political class, with this government it went exclusively with its own political bloc. That is to say, previous governments were Hezbollah governments in camouflage, this Hezbollah government drops all pretenses."
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/trump-admin-reconsidering-u-s-aid-to-hezbollah-controlled-lebanon/
The State Department's concession to Congress that it would commit to halting financial aid to Lebanon if U.S. taxpayer dollars go to Hezbollah is now being brought to the forefront.
The administration released hundreds of millions of dollars to Lebanon in late December over the objections of Trump loyalists in the National Security Council and State Department, who feared the money is directly aiding Hezbollah and its allies embedded in the Lebanese government, sources confirmed.
David Hale, the State Department's undersecretary of state for political affairs, drew a red line in recent meetings with Lebanese officials, telling them the Trump administration would deny aid to any Lebanese government controlled by Hezbollah, according to Lebanese media reports.
According to documents viewed by the Free Beacon, Cruz leveraged the nomination of Dorothy Shea, the State Department nominee to be the next ambassador to Lebanon, to obtain a written commitment that the United States will ensure that "Assistance does not benefit Hezbollah" and that even locally targeted aid will only go to municipalities that "Are not controlled by Hezbollah or any other designated foreign terrorist organization."
"Any future aid to Lebanon will rightly be viewed as a dramatic reversal. The President would be right to ask why Deep State actors embedded in the State and Defense Departments are gutting his maximum pressure campaign against Iran by financing Hezbollah, while hawks on the Hill would accuse the administration of a bait-and-switch."
"Whereas in the past it put forward faces more amenable to the U.S. and Europe, such as former prime minister Saad Hariri, and divvied up portfolios among all the major actors of the Lebanese political class, with this government it went exclusively with its own political bloc. That is to say, previous governments were Hezbollah governments in camouflage, this Hezbollah government drops all pretenses."
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/trump-admin-reconsidering-u-s-aid-to-hezbollah-controlled-lebanon/
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