House Democratic leaders are pressing the White House to explain its decision to freeze some US military aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces after officials in the Donald Trump administration refused to answer repeated questions from Congress during multiple meetings about the decision, Al-Monitor has learned. 

On Saturday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., wrote a public letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney that pressed him on his agency’s decision put $105 million in foreign military financing to Lebanon on hold in October.

“We are confounded by the decision to hold this assistance,” they wrote, asking Mulvaney to detail to Congress by Friday whether the White House consulted the State Department and Defense Department before applying the indefinite hold. 

Engel and Deutch sent the letter after Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs David Schenker would not explain the reason for the hold in a meeting last week despite repeated requests from staff, a congressional committee aide told Al-Monitor. The hold comes as protests taking aim at the Lebanese political elite, including Hezbollah, sweep the country.