AMERICA OFFERS LEBANON TO HEZBOLLAH ON A GOLDEN PLATE

When the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale stood before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he told Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen that Washington had invested ten billion dollars. He said it when discussing the “maximum pressure” campaign to counter Iran and the efforts to weaken Hezbollah, reduce its influence, and prevent it from exploiting the circumstances to expand its influence. With Hezbollah becoming stronger and involved in several military theatres in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, it is a direct acknowledgement that the US failed in its endeavour; the goal was not achieved. But what is more important today is that the US administration and the oil-rich Arab countries abandoned Lebanon to its ordeal, once again offering it to Hezbollah on a golden platter.

A new era began in Lebanon in 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon, which accelerated the emergence of Hezbollah under the name “Islamic Resistance in Lebanon”. It was the fruit of years of persecution for the Shiites of Jabal Amil. They lived in deprivation of national rights and were considered fourth category citizens after Christians, Sunnis and Druze.