Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., quickly pulled the plug on a meeting with Lebanon’s Defense Chief Gen. Rodolphe Haykal after the Lebanese official refused to confirm that the Iranian regime-backed Hezbollah movement is a terrorist organization.
Graham posted a blunt message on X about his frustration with the state of Lebanon in particular and power politics in the Middle East in general.
“I just had a very brief meeting with the Lebanese defense chief, General Rodolphe Haykal. I asked him point-blank whether he believes Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. He said, ‘No, not in the context of Lebanon.’ With that I ended the meeting. It is clearly a terrorist organization. Hezbollah has American blood on its hands. Just ask the US Marines,”
He continued: “They have been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by both the Republican and Democratic administrations since 1997 – and for good reason. As long as this attitude exists among the Lebanese Armed Forces, I do not think we have a reliable partner in them. I am tired of the double-speak in the Middle East. There is too much at stake.”
Lawmakers are questioning whether the US is moving fast enough to capitalize on Hezbollah’s weakened state
Haykal’s refusal to acknowledge that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization raised alarm bells among leading experts on the movement.
U.S. Marines search for survivors and bodies in the rubble, all that remained of their barracks headquarters in Beirut, after a terrorist suicide car bomb drove into the building and detonated, killing 241 U.S. service members and wounding more than 60. The US military was in Beirut as part of a multinational peacekeeping force. Islamic Jihad, later Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for the attack which coincided with the bombing of the French military headquarters at the eight-storey ‘Drakkar’ building. November 24, 1983, Beirut, Lebanon (Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket via Getty Images)
He added: “At a time when the LAF is seeking international assistance, ostensibly to disarm Hezbollah, the failure to recognize the group as an adversary not only of Israel but also of Lebanon undermines the case for further funding.”
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Lebanese Army vehicles patrol the area of Marjayoun in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, on October 25, 2024 (AFP via Getty Image)
Zehavi claimed that the Lebanese Armed Forces “helped Hezbollah conceal military activities and weapons caches in southern Lebanon.”
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham speaks during a press conference in St. Michael’s Square in the city center on May 30, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
The US brokered a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel in November 2024. In August, the Lebanese government accepted a US plan to disarm the group by the end of 2025. That deadline appears not to have been met.
US Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack, who also serves as envoy to Syria, said at a recent Milken Institute event that Lebanon is a “failed state.”
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Barrack said: “The denominational system is not working. A Maronite president, a Sunni prime minister and a Shia chairman; 128 seats in parliament equally divided between Islam and Christians; everything is a deadlock.”
He said, “Hezbollah is a foreign terrorist by American standards,” and “it also happens to be a major political party in Lebanon that has blocking rights… The idea of saying you have to disarm Hezbollah… you’re not really going to do that militarily.”
Barrack said: “The US says Hezbollah must be disarmed. Hezbollah is a foreign terrorist organization, it cannot exist. My personal opinion is that if you kill one terrorist, you create ten more. That cannot be the answer.” He urged Lebanese political leaders to “run to Israel and make a deal… there is no other answer.”
In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency’s press service, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack in Baabda, east of Beirut, Monday, July 7, 2025. (Press service of the Lebanese Presidency via AP)
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Hezbollah fighters hold flags as they attend the memorial service of their slain leader Sheikh Abbas al-Mousawi, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in 1992 in the village of Tefahta, southern Lebanon. A United Nations official has drawn scorn from Israeli diplomats for thanking one of the terror group’s top leaders after a meeting. (AP)
He added: “While Assad forces withdrew, Hezbollah remained armed. In May 2008, the radical Shia militia staged an urban military coup against the pro-Western government and seized full power until the war between Israel and Iran, known as the 2025 Twelve Day War. The latter was provoked by Hezbollah siding with Hamas during the October 7 war.”
