The US Senate passed by voice vote last week, without amendment, a resolution that mentions Hezbollah’s responsibility in the devastating explosion that rocked the port of Beirut on Aug. 4.
“The United States Government has longstanding concerns about Hezbollah's use of and influence over the Beirut port as a transit and storage point for its terrorist enterprise,” the resolution read.
Submitted on August 13 by the Committee on Foreign Relations, the resolution recognized the blast and expressed solidarity with the Lebanese people.
The resolution called on the Lebanese government to conduct a credible, impartial, and transparent investigation into the cause of, and responsibility for, the explosion, and include impartial international experts as part of the investigation team.
It listed the US aid offered to Lebanon on Aug. 7, through the United States Agency for International Development, providing more than $15,000,000 in humanitarian assistance to the Lebanese people.
These funds would support life-saving medical responses and relief for the immediate needs of people facing the tragedy, including food aid for 50,000 people for three months and medical and pharmaceutical support for up to 60,000 people for three months.
The resolution also said a stable Lebanon with a credible, transparent government free from Iranian and Hezbollah interference is in the broader national security interests of the US and its partners and allies.
Meanwhile, a US federal court accepted a lawsuit filed to stop the US funding of the Lebanese Armed Forces on the basis of Hezbollah’s interference in the country’s military and the army’s violation of human rights on behalf of Hezbollah.
Lebanese-American citizen Charbel El-Hajj filed on Dec. 21 a federal lawsuit against US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on grounds that he has made “unconstitutional and illegal decisions” to provide funding to the Lebanese army, which Hajj claims is “not independent of the control and influence of Hezbollah.”
