![]() ![]() One danger is that harming Lebanon to beat Iran will have the opposite effect. Lebanon is merely collateral damage that could backfire just like the vacuum the United States left in Afghanistan when the Soviets withdrew. His target, as it has been for every American administration since the Iranian revolution in 1979, is Iran. “We import $20 billion worth of goods, and we don’t have oil.” Without the remittances, the promised $11 billion in aid from last year’s Paris conference on Lebanese debt that failed to materialize, or any other funding from outside, Lebanon will soon be on its knees.ĭoes no one remember what Lebanon became when the Lebanese Army collapsed in February 1984? That ushered in an era of kidnapping foreigners, hijacking airplanes, hosting terrorists from many lands, and a mass exodus of Lebanese to all corners of the world. “It’s against Hezbollah,” a senior Lebanese politician told me, “but it’s against the Lebanese banking system.” He said the country normally received about $8.5 billion a year in remittances from Lebanese working overseas, but that fell this year to $3 billion. While Trump cuts military aid to Lebanon, his Treasury Department is squeezing Lebanon’s banks to prove they do not provide facilities for Hezbollah. A Western adviser to the Lebanese Army did not hold back when I asked his opinion of Trump’s cut: “He is utterly out of his tiny mind-exactly the wrong thing.” ![]()
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