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French President Emmanuel Macron recently had a rude awakening to the sobering realities of life in the Middle East. On September 26, President Macron spoke in direct and scathing terms regarding the Lebanese leaders and their commitment to rid the tiny country of the suffocating grip from Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal Movement.
One feels for the anguish of President Macron, but the United States is about to embark upon this same shaky road. On October 14, Lebanon's director general of public security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, will be coming to the United States, where he will be meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien.
The problem is that Mr. Ibrahim, although he has avoided being affiliated with any particular party, is very strongly associated with Hezbollah and Amal. He has allowed himself to do a lot of Hezbollah's "dirty work," often negotiating with the state on behalf of Hezbollah and heading up torture in some of Lebanon's notorious Hezbollah-run prisons.
Before embarking on that road, let us consider President Macron's sorry experience.
Immediately after the devastating August 4 explosion at the port of Beirut, the French leader rushed to the scene. He then returned on September 1. Seeing the rampant devastation and poverty first-hand, Macron created a blueprint to help Lebanon out of its own morass.
This effort entailed divesting Lebanon from Hezbollah's suffocating grip, including its control over the political and economic sectors, its wide-scale cronyism, its rampant corruption and its hyperinflation.
Read the full article here.
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