Washington: US President Donald Trump called the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah a threat to the entire Middle East on Tuesday, accusing it and Iran of fuelling a humanitarian disaster in Syria.
“Hezbollah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people and the entire region,” Trump said at a joint press conference alongside Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the White House.
“The group continues to increase its military arsenal which threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel with the support of Iran, the organisation is also fuelling humanitarian catastrophe in Syria.”
“The prime minister and I have just concluded an extensive conversation about the challenges and opportunities facing Lebanon and its neighbours,” Trump said at a press conference following his Oval Office meeting with Hariri. “Lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against Daesh, Al Qaida and Hezbollah. The Lebanese people, of all faiths, are working together to keep — and you know this, and we’ve been discussing this at great length — their country safe and prosperous.”
The United States has long condemned Hezbollah, a sprawling organisation with military and political arms, and considers it a threat to Mideast stability. The group is Lebanese, but receives backing from Iran. And, in various forms, it has been a fact of political life in Lebanon for decades.
Hariri has a delicate power-sharing relationship with Hezbollah, which with its allies effectively controls Lebanon’s powerful parliament. The country’s president, former General Michel Aoun, is backed by Hezbollah.
The United States and Lebanon essentially agree to disagree about the value of political partnership with Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist group. Hezbollah brought down a previous Lebanese government headed by Hariri, son of assassinated Lebanese political lion Rafik Hariri, and he governs with the knowledge that the group might be able to do it again.
Speaking to reporters later on Tuesday, Hariri said that Trump had been well informed about Hezbollah during their meeting. He stepped carefully around the question of whether Trump did not understand the group’s political role and power.
“In Lebanon, we are fighting Daesh and Al Qaida. Hezbollah we have, you know, in the government. And we have an understanding with Hezbollah,” Hariri said. “It is important to have this consensus. We have good dialogue with Hezbollah. They are in the parliament.”
Hariri is in Washington to rally support in the administration and Congress for economic and diplomatic support as Lebanon copes with more than a million refugees from the Syrian war next door.
‘Enforce UN resolutions’
Meanwhile, US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is urging the UN Security Council to acknowledge that Hezbollah — which it has not even named in recent resolutions — “is a destructive terrorist force” and “a major obstacle to peace” that is “dedicated to the destruction of Israel”.
She said the council must get serious about enforcing its resolutions that have been routinely violated by Hezbollah and its backer Iran, including many calling on the militant group to disarm.
Haley said the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon must also do “much more” to help prevent another conflict, starting by acknowledging “illegal weapons that Hezbollah parades in front of the media”.
She warned that the dangers Hezbollah poses “are getting larger, not smaller” and it’s time to acknowledge this and get serious about enforcing UN resolutions.
