Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, abruptly ended a meeting with Lebanese Chief of Defense, General Rodolphe Haykal, after the general failed to classify the Iranian-backed Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
Graham took to X to express his dissatisfaction with Lebanon’s stance and broader Middle Eastern geopolitics.
“I just had a very brief meeting with Lebanese Chief of Defense General Rodolphe Haykal. I asked him directly if he considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization. He replied, ‘No, not in the context of Lebanon.’ That was enough for me to end the meeting. Hezbollah is undeniably a terrorist organization and has American blood on its hands. Just ask the U.S. Marines,” Graham stated.
He further elaborated, “Hezbollah has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by both Republican and Democrat administrations since 1997, and rightly so. As long as the Lebanese Armed Forces maintain this viewpoint, I struggle to see them as a reliable ally. I’m tired of the Middle East’s double standards; there’s too much at stake.”
Haykal’s stance on Hezbollah has sparked concern among security experts who study the group.
Matthew Levitt, a prominent Hezbollah expert from the Washington Institute, told Fox News Digital, “General Haykal’s comment is likely to heighten worries that the Lebanese Armed Forces see Hezbollah as a group to cooperate with rather than disarm. The ceasefire agreement clearly states that Hezbollah must be disarmed in both the south and north of Lebanon. On several occasions, the Lebanese Armed Forces seem to have shared targeting intelligence from Israel with Hezbollah through the US-led mechanism, instead of taking action.”
U.S. Marines search for survivors and bodies in the rubble, all that was left of their barracks headquarters in Beirut, after a terrorist suicide car bomb was driven into the building and detonated, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and wounding over 60. The American military was in Beirut as part of a Multinational Peacekeeping force. The Islamic Jihad, later to become Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for the attack that coincided with the bombing of the French military headquarters at the eight-story ‘Drakkar’ building. Nov. 24, 1983, Beirut, Lebanon (Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket via Getty Images)
He added, “At a time when the LAF is seeking international aid, purportedly to disarm Hezbollah, failing to recognize the group as an adversary not only of Israel but of Lebanon as well undermines the case for further funding.”
Fox News Digital sent multiple press queries to Lebanon’s embassy in Washington, D.C.
Lebanese Army vehicles patrol the area of Marjayoun in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on Oct. 25, 2024 (AFP via Getty Image)
Sarit Zehavi, a leading Israeli security expert on Hezbollah from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, told Fox News Digital that, “I was not surprised by what Haykal said. This is exactly the problem. Hezbollah is not designated as a terrorist organization in Lebanon. The Lebanese army… is not willing to clash with Hezbollah. Hezbollah is not willing to voluntarily disarm. It will not happen as long as there is no clash.”
Zehavi claimed the Lebanese Armed Forces has “helped Hezbollah to conceal is military activity and weapons storages in south Lebanon.”
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham speaks during a press conference on Saint Michael’s Square in the city center on May 30, 2025, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
The U.S. brokered a ceasefire in Nov. 2024 between Hezbollah and Israel. In August, Lebanon’s government accepted an American plan to disarm the group by the end of 2025. That deadline does not seem to have been met.
U.S. 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.”
Barrack said, “The confessional system does not work. A Maronite president, a Sunni prime minister and a Shia speaker; 128 parliamentary seats split equally between Islam and Christians; everything is a deadlock.”
He said, “Hezbollah is a foreign terrorist by U.S. standards,” and “it also happens to be a large political party within Lebanon that has blocking rights… This idea of saying you have to disarm Hezbollah … you’re not actually gonna do it militarily.”
Barrack said, “The U.S. is saying Hezbollah needs to be disarmed, Hezbollah is a foreign terrorist organization, it cannot exist. My personal opinion is you kill one terrorist, you create 10. That can’t be the answer.” He urged the Lebanese political leadership to “run to Israel and make a deal…there is no other answer.”
In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, right, meets with U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, in Baabda, east of Beirut, Monday, July 7, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
Walid Phares, an American academic expert on Hezbollah and Lebanon who has advised U.S. presidential candidates, told Fox News Digital that “The disarming of Hezbollah is not just a U.S. and international request but also and most importantly a request by a majority of Lebanese since at least the Cedars Revolution in 2005, when 1.5 million Lebanese Christians, Druze and Sunnis rallied against the Syrian occupation and the Khomeinist militia.”
Hezbollah fighters hold flags as they attend the memorial of their slain leader Sheik Abbas al-Mousawi, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in 1992, in Tefahta village, south Lebanon. A United Nations official has drawn scorn from Israeli diplomats for thanking one of the terror group’s top leaders following a meeting. (AP)
He added, “While the Assad forces withdrew, Hezbollah remained armed. In May 2008, the radical Shia militia conducted an urban military coup against the pro-Western government and seized full power until the Israel-Iran war, known as the 12-day war of 2025. The latter was provoked by Hezbollah siding with Hamas during the Oct. 7 war.”
Fox News Digital reported in November that the Trump administration ramped up pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah.
