Israeli Ambassador to U.S.: Lebanon’s Military Needs Help, But Also Vetting Since Hezbollah Infiltrated Parts

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter said that Lebanon’s army “needs support from us, from all its friends. It needs vetting, because some of the units have been infiltrated by Hezbollah operatives.”

Co-host Bill Hemmer asked, “Are the Lebanese soldiers capable of defeating Hezbollah, if it comes to that?”

Leiter answered, “Well, the Lebanese army needs support. It needs support from us, from all its friends. It needs vetting, because some of the units have been infiltrated by Hezbollah operatives. It needs better training. It needs more financing. But if they are committed to actually dismantling Hezbollah, this can’t be any more of this namby-pamby, we’ll accept them to a certain extent, we’ve lived with them, so let’s continue trying to finesse this. This cannot be finessed with Hezbollah. Hezbollah’s the long arm of Iran. Iran needs this proxy on the frontline against Israel. So, they’ve basically occupied Lebanon. They’ve deprived Lebanon of their sovereignty. Lebanon wants them out. We want them out. And if we support the Lebanese armed forces enough and guarantee that the president now has the support he needs in order to really rid the country of this Hezbollah domination, then, yes, it can work.”

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