American Military Aid Can Be Used to Reduce Hizballah’s Influence in Lebanon https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/politics-current-affairs/2017/02/american-military-aid-can-be-used-to-reduce-hizballahs-influence-in-lebanon/

February 28, 2017 | Elliott Abrams
About the author: Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and is the chairman of the Tikvah Fund.

Last year, Washington provided Beirut with over $200 million of security assistance, most of which went to train and equip the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Elliott Abrams weighs the pros and cons of continuing to extend U.S. aid to a military that seems increasingly to be cooperating with Hizballah:

Lebanon is a friendly country, an ally against jihadist groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State, and a sort of democracy. But it is also the home of the terrorist group Hizballah, which largely dominates its politics and makes its democracy a sometime thing. It’s fair to say that nothing happens in Lebanon without Hizballah’s approval, no matter how elections turn out. . . .

[S]hould U.S. aid to the LAF continue? I find it a difficult question. Stopping the aid might only further weaken the LAF, which is not under Hizballah command—though it certainly refuses to confront the terrorist group. . . . It can [even] be argued that weakening the LAF could further weaken non-Hizballah influence in Lebanon.

If it is true that LAF-Hizballah cooperation is increasing, the United States should demand that that trend be halted and reversed. It is one thing for the LAF to refuse to confront Hizballah, and quite another to assist it in any way. Our aid should give us the leverage to achieve that much. My own bottom line for now is that we should not end aid to the LAF, but should make it very clear that this aid is in danger. Lebanese officials must come to realize that even if the withholding of aid weakens the LAF, that’s the inevitable outcome unless they keep farther away from Hizballah than current trends appear to suggest.

Read more on Pressure Points: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2017/02/23/the-problem-of-the-lebanese-army/