\nCHICAGO: Lebanon will be \u201canother Iran-dominated, corruption-riddled failed state\u201d if critical steps are not taken soon to end government corruption in the country, tackle the economic challenges it is facing and address the \u201ccrippling\u201d issue of Hezbollah\u2019s violence.<\/p>\n
\nThis is the conclusion of a report published on Tuesday by two leading Middle East think tanks based in Washington, the American Task Force on Lebanon and the Middle East Institute. To mark the occasion they hosted a webinar during which panelists discussed ways in which the report\u2019s powerful conclusions might be implemented and order restored to Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\nA major part of the discussion focused on the role of Hezbollah, and participants noted that the outcome of the ongoing US negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program could have significant ramifications for Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\nPaul Salem, the president of the Middle East Institute, said Lebanon faces many challenges, including the failure to eliminate sectarianism over the past 31 years, but that a greater challenge is the continuing presence and power of Hezbollah as a non-state actor with allegiance to Iran.<\/p>\n
\n\u201c(A) crippling issue is the presence of Hezbollah,\u201d he said. \u201cThis (Lebanese) government, no matter how they reform their government system, and no matter how much they are able to fight corruption or take some good decisions, the fact of the matter is the Lebanese state is not sovereign.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t control its border. It doesn\u2019t control its territory. It doesn\u2019t control the decisions of war and peace. There is a full-fledged army that is in complete allegiance to a foreign country \u2014 which is the Islamic Republic of Iran, which they proudly say so \u2014 that does not answer to the Lebanese people, does not answer to the Lebanese government or the Lebanese parliament or the Lebanese state. That is also a crippling problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSalem said he does not see Hezbollah\u2019s power in Lebanon changing, even if the US and Iran reach an agreement in Vienna.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWith or without a return to the nuclear deal, Iran remains committed to an advanced defense strategy, remains committed to standing up militias in other countries,\u201d he said. \u201c(In the past) it was Lebanon, and now it is Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIn his introductory remarks, congressman Darrell Issa gave an assurance that the US remains committed to Lebanon and to the staging of \u201cfree and fair elections\u201d scheduled for May for the parliament and later in the year for the presidency.<\/p>\n
\nThe participants in the discussion also included Edward M. Gabriel, president of the ATFL and a former ambassador; Brian Katulis, the MEI\u2019s vice president of policy; and journalist Joyce Karam. It was moderated by Jean AbiNader, the ATFL\u2019s vice president for policy.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIf we don\u2019t get the Iran deal correct, we have missed our best chance of dealing with this outside pressure on the country of Lebanon,\u201d said Gabriel, referring to Hezbollah\u2019s ties with Iran.<\/p>\n
\nThis section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cThe United States should realize they are in for some tough times by the Gulf, by Israel, by the Lebanese Americans if, in fact, they don\u2019t deal with terrorism proxies in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nKatulis said that the world must get past the idea that \u201cLebanon is lost.\u201d He added that he hopes US President Joe Biden, who began his term in office by placing much focus on Iran and Yemen, will see that the future of Lebanon \u201cis directly linked to the issue of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAbiNader said that saving Lebanon is \u201ccritical to America.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe added: \u201cWithout strong support from the United States and its friends, Iran and Syria would dominate Lebanon and likely pose increased terror threats to the United States. This does not serve American interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe ATFL\/MEI report highlights a number of hurdles that need to be cleared to improve the situation in Lebanon and end the crises it faces, and calls on Biden and the US to lead a \u201cdiplomatic coalition\u201d to encourage the implementation of political and economic reforms.<\/p>\n
\nAll of the panelists agreed on the need to \u201csignificantly reduce corruption at all levels of government\u201d in Lebanon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saving Lebanon can help prevent Iran\u2019s web of terror from spreading in region, activists argue CHICAGO: Lebanon will be \u201canother Iran-dominated, corruption-riddled failed state\u201d if critical steps are not taken soon to end government corruption in the country, tackle the economic challenges it is facing and address the \u201ccrippling\u201d issue of Hezbollah\u2019s violence. This is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}