Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are dangling reconstruction and investment funds for Lebanon — but only if the crisis-plagued country can put forward a plan to disarm Hezbollah, with the US offering to act as an intermediary.
Once Tehran’s most powerful proxy, Hezbollah was severely weakened after a conflict with Israel last year. Now the Trump administration has offered Lebanon options to disarm the group, with Gulf countries stepping in with incentives, the US envoy to the country told Bloomberg.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun appears willing, with the country’s prime minister also saying last week that the military will present a plan this month to dismantle all non-state armed groups by the end of 2025.
Hezbollah, part of the Lebanese political and civil landscape for decades, unsurprisingly remains defiant. The group, designated a terrorist organization by the US, is being “managed a lot more closely by the Iranians” so Tehran will likely have a say, a senior editor at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut told Bloomberg.