U.S. Policy in Lebanon Is Now Helping Hezbollah and Iran

The U.S. is deploying special forces on the ground in Lebanon to provide training for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) for missions that partner with Hezbollah—Iran’s most valuable terrorist ally—against ISIS. Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told the U.S.-based Al-Hurra Arabic TV network that American troops are there to provide assistance for the upcoming offensive against ISIS in the northeast border region in which the LAF will attack from from inside Lebanon while Hezbollah advances from Syria to the east.

Pursuing the twin Middle East objectives of destroying ISIS and pushing back against Iran was always a dicey proposition. Even with meticulous military and political planning, ensuring that one doesn’t gain strength at the expense of the other was bound to be a task fraught with difficulties. That’s what makes the decision to boost Iran and its proxies in order to finish off ISIS in Syria so confounding.

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The genesis of this backward U.S. policy has its roots in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which was passed in the wake of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. As Levant specialist, Tony Badran of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies explained, the resolution was later reinterpreted by the Obama administration during the negotiations to reach an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program. That shift in focus remains the policy of the Trump administration today.

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