Ambassador Tabbara: US sanctions are cluster bombs … the rise of ISIS in northern Lebanon

The advancement of Turkey’s role in the Lebanese arena

Zeina Tabbara –

The former ambassador to Washington, Dr. Riyadh Tabbara, believed that what was rumored about a dispute between the White House and the Elysee over the management of the Lebanese file is inaccurate, rather the opposite. The United States is playing the role of the missile launcher behind the French role, which diplomatically seeks to break through the wall of corruption. And to control Lebanese legitimacy, thus considering that the United States’ sanctions schedule against former ministers Ali Hassan Khalil for the Amal movement and Youssef Fenianos for the Marada movement was, from the point of view of the White House, neither arbitrary nor random. , but rather studied and within the proper calculations, to break the cordon in the process of government formation. Especially after the President of Parliament, Nabih Berri, announced his accession to the Ministry of Finance and former Minister Gebran Bassil in the ministries of energy and communications.

In an interview with Al-Anbaa, Dr. Tabbara noted that the sanctions reached the middle of the deadline given by French President Emmanuel Macron to form the government, which means that the United States, France and the European Union are monitoring closely the path of government formation, and they are more than serious about freeing it from its clutches. Political forces, the United States rushed to launch the first round of sanctions in the context of its support for the French effort based primarily on an agreement between Presidents Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron to prevent the collapse of Lebanon, in addition to their common concern about the ISIS escalation in northern Lebanon, coinciding with the advance of the Turkish role on the scene. Lebanese, not to mention their concern over the presence of more than a million and a half Syrian refugees, which could lead them to collapse, if it occurs, to head west.

In response to a question, he stressed that the US strategy in Lebanon and the region is not limited to supporting the French effort to fix the Lebanese house, as the new US sanctions are like cluster bombs that explode in stages and in different places. , the most important of which are three:

1- The financial siege of Hezbollah, by punishing all those who support it inside and outside of Lebanon.

2 – Withdraw Iran to the negotiating table, according to US conditions, building its arm with the help of God in Lebanon, in addition to intensifying sanctions against it, which accelerated its financial and economic collapse.

3- Support the formation of the Lebanese government from outside the political forces and from a reformist point of view, knowing that the Americans and the French are aware that the new sanctions on Lebanese politicians, in addition to the pressure on Hezbollah, will provoke a Largest economic contraction in Lebanon, but it appears that the American French addresses its priority of preventing Lebanon’s collapse on the basis of “an hour’s pain, not an hour.”