US Deputy Middle East Envoy Morgan Ortagus said she was ‘not afraid’ of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
The United States has demanded that Hezbollah must not be part of Lebanon’s government.
Washington’s Deputy Middle East Envoy Morgan Ortagus said on Friday after meeting Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun that she was “not afraid” of the armed group “because they’ve been defeated militarily”. However, she said that the US has made its continued role in the government a “red line”.
The Shia Muslim, Iran-backed, Hezbollah is believed to have been weakened by Israel’s recent war on Lebanon, but maintains a significant political role.
“We have set clear red lines … that [Hezbollah] won’t be able to terrorise the Lebanese people, and that includes by being a part of the government,” Ortagus told reporters.
Later on Friday, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, Mohammed Raad, slammed Ortagus’s comments as “blatant interference” in Lebanon’s affairs.
Ortagus’s statement was “full of malice and irresponsibility” and attacked a component of “Lebanese political life”, Raad said in a statement, adding that the remarks amounted to “blatant interference in Lebanon’s sovereignty”.
Ortagus is the first senior US official to visit Lebanon since US President Donald Trump took office and since Aoun was elected president.
Her visit comes amid a stalled cabinet formation process in Lebanon, where government posts are apportioned on sectarian lines. Hezbollah’s ally, the Amal Movement, has insisted on approving all Shia Muslim ministers, keeping the process in deadlock.
Ortagus had been widely expected to deliver a tough message to Lebanese officials about Hezbollah.
The ceasefire brokered by the United States and France to end the fighting in late November set a deadline of 60 days for Israel to withdraw from south Lebanon, and for Hezbollah to pull out its fighters and arms and for Lebanese troops to deploy to the area.
However, Israeli forces have remained in south Lebanon to conduct demolishing operations in border villages and the withdrawal deadline has now been extended to February 18.
Ortagus referred to the new withdrawal date on Friday but did not explicitly say the Israeli army would withdraw from Lebanese territory.
“February 18 will be the date for redeployment, when the [Israeli] troops will finish their redeployment, and of course, the [Lebanese] troops will come in behind them, so we are very committed to that firm date,” she said.