U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to “strike new sanctions on Hizbullah,” and to feature the party’s “growing powers” in the Lebanese government, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Saturday.
A U.S. official told the daily: “Trump’s administration is preparing new sanctions against Hizbullah,” and will discuss its concerns “from its growing control on the government and Lebanese officials,” he said.
However he assured that there would be no measures targeting the Lebanese army.
Matthew Levitt, director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in remarks to the daily: “The measure taken by Switzerland is completely separate from the British decision.”
He was referring to Switzerland’s decision in February to halt arms exports to Lebanon due to “inability to account for a Swiss shipment of weapons to Lebanon.”