{"id":34217,"date":"2026-02-07T00:06:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/?p=34217"},"modified":"2026-02-07T00:06:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:06:26","slug":"lindsey-graham-abruptly-ends-meeting-after-lebanese-general-refuses-to-label-hezbollah-terrorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/?p=34217","title":{"rendered":"Lindsey Graham abruptly ends meeting after Lebanese general refuses to label Hezbollah terrorists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen.\u00a0Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., swiftly pulled the plug on a meeting with Lebanese Chief of Defense Gen. Rodolphe Haykal after the Lebanese official refused to confirm that the Iranian regime-backed Hezbollah movement is a terrorist organization.
\nGraham posted to X a blunt message about his frustration with the state of Lebanon in particular and Mideast power politics in general.
\n\u00a0\u2018I just had a very brief meeting with the Lebanese Chief of Defense General Rodolphe Haykal. I asked him point blank if he believes Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. He said, \u2018No, not in the context of Lebanon.\u2019 With that, I ended the meeting. They are clearly a terrorist organization. Hezbollah has American blood on its hands. Just ask the U.S. Marines,\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

He continued, \u2018They have been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by both Republican and Democrat administrations since 1997 \u2013 for good reason. As long as this attitude exists from the Lebanese Armed Forces, I don\u2019t think we have a reliable partner in them. I am tired of the double speak in the Middle East. Too much is at stake.\u2019<\/p>\n

Haykal\u2019s refusal to recognize that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization set off security alarm bells among leading experts on the movement.
\nMatthew Levitt, a leading scholar on Hezbollah from the Washington Institute, told Fox News Digital that, \u2018Gen. Haykal\u2019s comment is only going to further concerns that the LAF sees Hezbollah as an actor with which it should deconflict, rather than disarm. The ceasefire agreement is clear that Hezbollah must be disarmed, in both the south and north of the country. In several instances to date, the LAF appears to have shared with Hezbollah targeting intelligence obtained from Israel through the US-led mechanism rather than acting on it.\u2019
\nHe added, \u2018At a time when the LAF is seeking international aid, purportedly to disarm Hezbollah, failing to recognize the group as an adversary not only of Israel but of Lebanon as well undermines the case for further funding.\u2019
\nFox News Digital sent multiple press queries to Lebanon\u2019s embassy in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Sarit Zehavi, a leading Israeli security expert on Hezbollah from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, told Fox News Digital that, \u2018I was not surprised by what Haykal said. This is exactly the problem. Hezbollah is not designated as a terrorist organization in Lebanon. The Lebanese army\u2026 is not willing to clash with Hezbollah. Hezbollah is not willing to voluntarily disarm. It will not happen as long as there is no clash.\u2019
\nZehavi claimed the\u00a0Lebanese Armed Forces has \u2018helped Hezbollah to conceal is military activity and weapons storages in south Lebanon.\u2019
\nThe U.S. brokered a ceasefire in Nov. 2024 between Hezbollah and Israel. In August, Lebanon\u2019s government accepted an American plan to disarm the group by the end of 2025. That deadline does not seem to have been met.
\nU.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Barrack, who also serves as envoy to Syria, said at a recent Milken Institute event that Lebanon is a \u2018failed state.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barrack said, \u2018The confessional system does not work. A Maronite president, a Sunni prime minister and a Shia speaker; 128 parliamentary seats split equally between Islam and Christians; everything is a deadlock.\u2019
\nHe said, \u2018Hezbollah is a foreign terrorist by U.S. standards,\u2019 and \u2018it also happens to be a large political party within Lebanon that has blocking rights\u2026 This idea of saying you have to disarm Hezbollah \u2026 you\u2019re not actually gonna do it militarily.\u2019
\nBarrack said, \u2018The U.S. is saying Hezbollah needs to be disarmed, Hezbollah is a foreign terrorist organization, it cannot exist. My personal opinion is you kill one terrorist, you create 10. That can\u2019t be the answer.\u2019 He urged the Lebanese political leadership to \u2018run to Israel and make a deal\u2026there is no other answer.\u2019
\nWalid Phares,\u00a0an American academic expert on Hezbollah and Lebanon\u00a0who has advised U.S. presidential candidates, told Fox News Digital that \u2018The disarming of Hezbollah is not just a U.S. and international request but also and most importantly a request by a majority of Lebanese since at least the Cedars Revolution in 2005, when 1.5 million Lebanese Christians, Druze and Sunnis rallied against the Syrian occupation and the Khomeinist militia.\u2019
\nHe added, \u2018While the Assad forces withdrew, Hezbollah remained armed. In May 2008, the radical Shia militia conducted an urban military coup against the pro-Western government and seized full power until the Israel-Iran war, known as the 12-day war of 2025. The latter was provoked by Hezbollah siding with Hamas during the Oct. 7 war.\u2019
\nFox News Digital reported in November that the\u00a0Trump administration\u00a0ramped up pressure on the\u00a0Lebanese government\u00a0to disarm Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"Sen.\u00a0Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., swiftly pulled the plug on a meeting with Lebanese Chief of Defense…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[230,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investmentbankingrules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}