US unfreezes $95m in aid for Lebanese army
The US State Department has confirmed the waiver to US news outlet Axios, saying “We are working with our Department of Defense colleagues to move forward with the implementation of these funds”.
Aid to the Lebanese Army was thrown into limbo with the January inauguration of US President Trump, whose administration has been moving to make broad cuts to the country’s foreign aid budget.
Two unnamed US officials who spoke to Axios said that the US sees the aid as essential to a strategy of weakening Hezbollah in its traditional home of South Lebanon.
“For the first time in years, the Lebanese army entered areas in southern Lebanon that used to be controlled by Hezbollah, destroyed military infrastructure and confiscated some of the group’s ammunition caches, the officials said,” Axios’s report reads.
Qatar expresses continued support for Lebanese army: Presidency
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, has met Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on the sidelines of the Arab summit in Cairo.
A post on X by the Lebanese presidency said Qatar’s emir reaffirmed his country’s readiness to continue providing support to the Lebanese army and to assist Lebanon in supporting vital projects – such as the development of the electricity sector.
The November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was planned to see Hezbollah retreat north of the Litani River and away from Lebanon’s border with Israel while Israeli forces would leave southern Lebanon and a newly empowered Lebanese military would control the south.
However, Israel has not fully implemented the agreement, keeping its forces still in southern Lebanon.
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