Influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said that he cut his meeting short with Lebanese army chief Gen. Rodolphe Haykal after the commander refused to consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
On Thursday, Graham said on X he "had a very brief meeting" in Washington after asking Haykal whether the Lebanese military considered Hezbollah to be "a terrorist organization."
Graham said that Haykal replied, "No, not in the context of Lebanon."
“They are clearly a terrorist organization. Hezbollah has American blood on its hands. Just ask the US Marines,” he said about the bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut on October 23, 1983. The suicide attack killed 241 US service members.
Hezbollah has “been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by both Republican and Democrat administrations since 1997 – for good reason,” he said.
“As long as this attitude exists from the Lebanese Armed Forces, I don’t think we have a reliable partner in them. I am tired of the double speak in the Middle East. Too much is at stake,” Graham added.
