Lebanon's Security Challenges and U.S. Interests

Lebanon is a country that is seemingly perpetually in a state of conflict or on the verge of breaking out into conflict at any moment. A bloody and protracted civil war ravaged the country over 25 years ago, from which Lebanon has never fully recovered. One of the by-products of the Lebanese civil war was the emergence of Hezbollah in the early 1980s. Hezbollah is a U.S. designated terrorist organization and has been responsible for conducting many acts of violence that have left hundreds of innocent U.S. and Israeli citizens dead. Hezbollah is responsible for much of the bloodshed in Syria and it has brought that conflict across the border into Lebanon, and with it other terrorist groups like al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL. This is not just a threat for Lebanon. The increased violence threatens to destabilize the entire region, threatening U.S. national interests, and our democratic partner, Israel. In recent months, ISIL has been seeking to expand its influence in Lebanon and its commander said the group would use Lebanon as a gateway for al-Qaeda to strike Israel.