Lobbying 2016: US struggles to sideline Hezbollah in Lebanon
The United States is struggling to sideline Hezbollah without further splintering faction-ridden Lebanon.
Congress and the Barack Obama administration have adopted a dual strategy of trying to starve the Shiite militia of funds while bankrolling state institutions they hope can provide a US-friendly counterweight. To that end, the president signed into law new financial sanctions on Hezbollah in December, while Congress and the State Department have been steadily increasing economic and security support for the Lebanese government and its police and military forces.
Neither approach is without risk.
Lebanese lawmakers and banking officials have made it clear that undermining the country’s vital financial sector would be devastating to a country already reeling from the crisis in next-door Syria. A parliamentary delegation visited Washington in February to urge restraint, while the powerful Association of Banks in Lebanon is spending more than half a million dollars a year lobbying Congress and the State and Treasury Departments on the issue.
