In Jerusalem, there is growing concern over the perceived cooperation between the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Hezbollah terrorist organization, prompting calls for the Trump administration to reconsider its substantial aid to the LAF, according to some analysts.
Israeli scholar of Hezbollah, Edy Cohen, expressed his views on the matter, stating that “Hezbollah and the Lebanese army are the same.” Cohen, from Lebanon and based in Israel, emphasized that President Trump should withhold funding from the Lebanese army due to their sharing of intelligence with Hezbollah.
Recently, The London-based Times newspaper disclosed that a high-ranking LAF official had transmitted a confidential document to Hezbollah. According to the report, Suhil Bahij Gharb, in charge of military intelligence in southern Lebanon for the LAF, obtained this sensitive information from a military installation operated by the United States, France, and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Israeli soldiers raise their fists from a moving APC in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Phares, who has previously advised candidate Trump, added, “In Washington, D.C., there is a debate about arming or not the Lebanese army. Hezbollah has a lot of influence in the LAF. Some lawmakers want to stop the support to the army, others preach that maintaining that support will keep it away from Hezbollah.”
He recommended a new policy: “Rerouting the money to new units in the Lebanese army dedicated only to disarm Hezbollah. These units should report to the command of the army and the president of the republic and should be funded on projects only.”
Phares said, “When Israel eliminated the leadership of the terror militia most Lebanese hoped it was the moment to end Hezbollah and have the army disarm it. People hoped Lebanon will be able to free itself and join the Abraham Accords. But again, the Biden administration didn’t help because of the Iran deal.”
Foreign policy critics of the Biden administration argued that he was wedded to the Iran nuclear deal and did not want to pick fights with Iranian regime allies, so he rekindled the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Tehran. Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal because, he argued, it did not stop Tehran from building a nuclear bomb.
An arch glorifying Hezbollah and Iranian leaders decorates a street of Beirut’s southern suburb on Jan. 16, 2011. (Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images)
IDF Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, president and founder of the Israel-based Alma Research and Education Center, told Fox News Digital, “Hezbollah is coming back in south Lebanon [and is] opposed to the arrangement. The Lebanese Army is not fulfilling its mission to deploy effectively in south Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah from coming back.”
A spokesman for Lebanon’s embassy referred Fox News Digital to a spokesperson in Beirut, who did not answer multiple press queries.
Zehavi, who lives close to the Lebanese border, said, “We did not see the Lebanese Army disarming Hezbollah. Hezbollah is coming back to those towns. If there are still weapons in those towns, I believe there is, it means that they will be capable of executing terror attacks.”
She said, “It is within the interests of Hezbollah to cause death, to cause friction to its own Lebanese civilians. And to present the IDF as a force that should not be in Lebanon.” She warned, “We should not fall into the fake message of Hezbollah.” Zehavi said after the second war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel it was agreed that Hezbollah should not be in south Lebanon. UNIFIL has ignored the Hezbollah military buildup since the Second Lebanon War in 2006, according to Israel.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital press query about whether the American government will end aid to the LAF.
THE Associated Press contributed to this report.
