Report: Washington Displeased with Lebanon Position on Hizbullah

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will expectantly arrive in Beirut next week as part of a travel plan that includes Israel, Kuwait and Lebanon.

According to diplomatic sources, Pompeo's visit to the region comes within the context of the “declared American agenda aimed at building the bases with Washington's allies on how to confront the Iranian threat and stop expanding Iran's influence in the region,” they told al-Joumhouria daily.

On the other hand, the visit also aims at “pressuring Hizbullah in the context of a U.S. plan to tighten the political and financial sanctions against the party,” they added.

The sources stressed that what Pompeo prepares to discuss in Lebanon was already laid out by David Satterfield, acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, in his meetings in Lebanon during his recent visit.

He drew attention to “American dissatisfaction with the Lebanese official position, in particular the position of President Michel Aoun and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil regarding Hizbullah,” said the sources.

Their position “offers unconvincing justifications for the party, embraces it, adopts its orientations, and ignores the fact that its power is growing and its permanent threat to the structure of the Lebanese state and to the overall stability in Lebanon and the region is increasing,” they added.

The sources pointed out that this resentment was conveyed to official Lebanese bodies through Arab and Western diplomatic channels.

Satterfield has also frankly expressed this discontent in front of some Lebanese personalities he met during his recent visit to Lebanon. “He stressed the need to increase the pressure on Hizbullah,” they concluded.