Lebanese army chief visits Washington as congress votes on Hizbollah sanctions

Lebanon’s army commander will visit Washington this week as US legislators vote on stricter sanctions against the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah.

Gen Joseph Aoun is scheduled to meet the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Joseph Dunford, and the commander of US Central Command, Gen Joseph Votel this week at the Pentagon.

His visit, the second since he took charge of the Lebanese armed forces in March, will focus on US assistance for counter-terrorism operations after the army’s fight against ISIL in the Arsal border region in August.

A new package on the table includes Super Tucano light attack aircraft, a US source said.

Washington provides almost $70 million (Dh257m) a year in security and military aid for Lebanon.

Gen Aoun’s visit coincides with a congress vote on laws to cut off the finances of Hizbollah, designated as a terrorist organisation by the US government since 1997.

The law authorises new sanctions against the Iran-funded group and its financial networks.

It requires the US president to release an annual estimate of the net worth of Hizbollah’s leaders and backers, including secretary general Hassan Nasrallah.

A vote in the house of representatives, where the bill has the support of both parties, is expected on Wednesday but could come as soon as tomorrow.

Gen Aoun’s visit “needs to tread a fine line between the political scenes in Beirut and Washington”, said Randa Slim, of the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington.

“If he is perceived by Hizbollah as having become an ally for the US in its strategy to roll back Iranian influence in the region, this will complicate relations between the Lebanese army and Hizbollah,” Ms Slim said.

But if Gen Aoun “is seen as too accommodating to Hizbollah’s demands and red lines, it will risk undermining US congressional support for US military assistance to Lebanon”, she said.

The Lebanese army chief is

also expected to meet members of the congress’s foreign affairs and armed services committees during his visit.

The bill strengthens a law passed in 2015 and calls for sanctions on any foreign person or entity who “assists, sponsors or provides significant financial, material, or technological support” or who is determined by the president to be engaged in fund-raising or recruitment for Hizbollah.

The bill also targets Hizbollah affiliates including Bayt Al Mal, Jihad Al Bina, the Islamic Resistance Support Association, the foreign relations department of Hizbollah, the external security organisation of Hizbollah, and its media outlets – Al Manar TV and Al Nour Radio.

Senior Lebanese officials, parliamentarians and banking officials have visited Washington in the past six months to soften the blow of the bill and limit damage to the country’s vulnerable economic sector.

“I’ve had long conversations with the government from Lebanon on this,” congressman Ed Royce, a main sponsor of the bill, said recently.

Speaking at a panel hosted by the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, Mr Royce criticised Hizbollah’s role in the Lebanese government.

“These conversations would probably be more impactful to me and my colleagues if we didn’t have an agent of Hizbollah sitting in the room when we have them,” he said. “This is one of the greatest misgivings I have about Lebanon allowing Hizbollah into the government.”

The bill has undergone a few amendments from the draft leaked in the Lebanese press in May, and no longer targets or mentions by name Hizbollah allies such as the Shiite group Amal or the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.