President Donald Trump is prolonging a 13-year national emergency over politics in Lebanon, which has reported two attacks in so many other days through neighboring Israel, a close best friend of the United States.
The annual measure presented in a White House document entitled “Continued National Emergency for Lebanon”, which was filed on Wednesday in the Federal Register and is expected to be published on Thursday. It comprises an argument for renewing a national emergency originally declared in 2007 through President George W. Bush through Executive Order 13441 on the political divisions and developing force of Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim motion near Iran and Syria.
The order invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to identify the legal basis for punishing defendants in Lebanon to seek to undermine the country’s democracy, violate the rule of law, resort to political violence and intimidation, reassert Syrian influence, or otherwise undermine the country’s sovereignty. Such an opposite risk to Lebanon is considered a risk to “U.S. national security and foreign policy” under the law.
“Some ongoing activities, such as continued arms transfers from Iran to Hezbollah, which come with increasingly complicated weapons systems,” meet those criteria, according to the document, which warrant a one-year extension, as has been followed over 3 administrations.
Lebanon’s is one of 35 ongoing U.S. national emergencies, seven of which have been declared through Trump, ranging from opposing sanctions to governments opposed to army resources for a southern border wall and other measures.
“This is a regime review that takes up position every year, reaffirming the continuation of the same policy since 2007, the consequences of which are already known,” Lebanon’s ambassador to the United States, Gabriel Issa, said in an envoy to Newsweek. “We don’t have any additional comments beyond that right now.”
In another statement sent to Newsweek, Hezbollah denied that he had carried out any operations, arguing that Israeli forces had attacked out of blind concern and that any report to the contrary was an “attempt to invent false imaginary victories.” The organization also promised to avenge the death last week of one of its commanders, Ali Kamel Mohsen, in an alleged Israeli airstrike and warned that the attack on Hebbariye will “not be tolerated.”
The next day, the Israeli army was on high alert again, saying it had met “several suspects” across the border region, but a follow-up made us think there had been no “intrusion.” The Lebanese national news firm reported after another cross-border attack, with an Israeli chimney allegedly targeting a site near the village of Kfar Kila and new Israeli artillery batteries that moved to the tense border area.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNFPA) announced Wednesday that it had “opened an investigation into the facts and circumstances.” Italian Major General Stefano Del Col, head of UNIFIL, informed Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, armed forces commander General Joseph Aoun, and chief security Officer Abbas Ibrahim.
UNIFIL was created after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1978, approximately 3 years after the start of what would be a 15-year civil war between political, devout and foreign-backed factions. Israel invaded in 1982 in reaction to Palestinian attacks and Hezbollah formed the resistance, waging another war with Israel in 2006 after the organization carried out a fatal cross-border incursion.
Clashes continue to plague the disputed border and Israel flies its warplanes over Lebanese airspace, most recently “making false raids” at low altitudes over the southern regions of Nabatiyeh and Iqlim al-Tuffah and patrolling at medium altitude over the Matn district, which dominates Beirut. Training
However, the capital, like much of the rest of the country, was already experiencing other difficulties. The besieged Lebanese currency has long turned into a loose drop in hyperinflation in recent months, just as the COVID-19 pandemic has limited movement and closed businesses nationwide. In addition to this, daily power outages lasted until 2 p.m. in some parts of the country after a bleak scandal that halted fuel deliveries from Algeria.
As the country’s political paralysis persists, politicians have increasingly opposed the government’s clear willingness, either because of the inability to enact the reforms needed to obtain the help of the Foreign Monetary Fund and could therefore become a worsening of the security situation at the border.
This article has been updated to come with a Lebanon ambassador to the United States, Gabriel Issa.
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