[News] A US stranglehold on Lebanon: Scorched earth policy aimed at total surrender

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 A US stranglehold on Lebanon: Scorched earth policy aimed at total
surrender

The US has escalated its military, economic, and political intervention in
Lebanon, fully backing Israel’s war on Hezbollah while pushing for the
country’s total disarmament – an aggressive campaign that risks dragging
Lebanon into collapse, civil war, or forced normalization with Tel Aviv.

Radwan Mortada <https://thecradle.co/authors/radwan-mortada-16>

MAR 17, 2025 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/a-us-stranglehold-on-lebanon-scorched-earth-policy-aimed-at-total-surrender
Photo Credit: The Cradle

The optics of US President Donald Trump’s newly appointed envoy to Lebanon,
Morgan Ortagus, flaunting a rocket-propelled grenade
<https://twitter.com/MorganOrtagus/status/1888486619659022646> from
Hezbollah’s arsenal while posing beside a Lebanese army officer, was a
clear and deliberate statement.

The image posted last month, captioned “All in a day’s work,” signaled a
new chapter in US strategy that reflects the Trump administration's new
blunt, crude approach toward Lebanon.

While the Biden administration had already steered Lebanon toward a
“bone-crushing” policy by backing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
in a decisive battle against Hezbollah, the next phase of US intervention
poses no less danger to this small, fragile Levantine state. Lebanon
remains caught in a volatile region, with its former lifeline, Syria
<https://thecradle.co/articles/in-syria-an-unhinged-massacre-of-alawite-civilians>,
today engulfed in sectarian chaos.

*A new phase of US intervention*

“The new US strategy on the Lebanon conflict: Let it play out” – this was
*Reuters's*
<https://www.reuters.com/world/caught-between-competing-goals-lebanon-us-stays-sidelines-2024-10-12/>
headline on 13 October 2024, about two weeks after Hezbollah’s former
secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated and Israel launched its
ground invasion of Lebanon.

The report summarized the Biden administration’s stance, making it clear
that Washington was determined to ensure that the occupation state emerged
decisively victorious in its wars against both Gaza and Lebanon.

This trajectory ultimately led to the collapse
<https://thecradle.co/articles/the-fall-of-the-syrian-arab-republic-now-at-the-mercy-of-regional-and-global-power-plays>
of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government and the takeover of
Damascus by the extremist militant faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS),
effectively eliminating Iran and Russia’s influence in West Asia.

With even greater ruthlessness, the new US administration has expanded its
support for Israeli military action in Gaza, the occupied West Bank,
southern Syria, and southern Lebanon. Trump himself has taken it further,
openly advocating for the displacement
<https://thecradle.co/articles-id/29364> of Palestinians, the seizure of
their land, and the expansion of Israel’s borders in violation of all
international laws and conventions – although he has since toned down this
rhetoric as Arab states moved to endorse
<https://thecradle.co/articles-id/29202> Egypt’s reconstruction plan for
the strip.

By contrast, the previous Democratic administration had at least attempted
to maintain a facade of balance by criticizing settlement expansion in the
West Bank and pressuring Tel Aviv to allow aid into Palestinian territories.

The Trump administration has no intention of walking back its full-fledged
support of Israeli aggression in Lebanon. As part of the ceasefire
agreement between Israel and Lebanon that took effect in late November last
year, Israeli troops were to withdraw fully from Lebanese territory by
January. However, this has already been postponed
<https://thecradle.co/articles/netanyahu-signals-israel-will-remain-in-south-lebanon-after-withdrawal-deadline>
three times with no clear timeline, and the agreement has been violated
thousands of times – confirming Washington’s commitment to implementing
Israel’s demands without hesitation.

More concerning is that the new administration, dominated by hardline
Republican figures in key security and foreign policy positions, views
Lebanon entirely through Tel Aviv's lens: a battlefield state from which it
plans to deliver a final, conclusive defeat to Iran and the Axis of
Resistance.

*The strategy: Total disarmament and political engineering*

Securing a total victory in Lebanon is not just an Israeli goal; it is an
American one as well. However, this pursuit carries enormous risks for
Lebanon, as it breaks from the measured pressure strategies of previous US
administrations. Those strategies, while aggressive, avoided pushing
Lebanon past the brink – ensuring that the state's borders remained intact
and that internal tensions did not spiral into a full-scale civil war.

The Trump administration’s determination to settle West Asian conflicts and
expand the 2020 Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia
<https://thecradle.co/articles-id/28759>, Lebanon, Syria
<https://thecradle.co/articles/the-us-begins-normalization-pressure-on-syria-lebanon>,
and Iraq will necessitate the complete dismantling of any opposition that
could obstruct this project.

This new US approach disregards the internal political balances of these
key West Asian states, particularly Lebanon. Meanwhile, Israel’s
expansionist ambitions are no longer limited to its traditional adversaries
as they now extend toward Egypt and Jordan
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250212-israel-expert-trump-netanyahu-risk-peace-deals-with-jordan-egypt/>
as well.

For Trump, flipping the region is part of a broader strategy – one that
involves de-escalating tensions with Russia in order to concentrate on
countering China and its allies, particularly Iran, while rallying regional
partners through the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor
<https://thecradle.co/articles/israels-war-on-gaza-is-destroying-imecs-viability>
(IMEC).

To achieve these objectives, the US is deploying familiar divide-and-rule
tactics, ones used in past conflicts such as the 2006 July War in Lebanon
and its aftermath. Former US ambassador Jeffrey Feltman admitted in a
congressional hearing that Washington spent half a billion dollars on
anti-Hezbollah media propaganda campaigns during his tenure in Beirut.

*The military and economic war on Lebanon*

Additionally, the economic pressure exerted by US Treasury envoy Marshall
Billingslea between 2017 and 2019 played a key role in accelerating
Lebanon’s financial and banking collapse – particularly after US sanctions
targeted Jammal Trust Bank.

But Washington has not yet used the full extent of its coercive measures.
The red lines of previous US administrations, whose biggest fear was that
Hezbollah might one day seize full military control of the capital as it
nearly did on 7 May 2008
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-strike/lebanon-political-conflict-turns-violent-idUSL0761005520080507/>,
no longer hold under Trump's leadership. Now, with Israel’s war having
severely weakened Hezbollah’s military capabilities, the US believes the
resistance movement is no longer in a position to threaten the occupation
state with a large-scale conflict.

Today, the US tools being deployed are mainly military and security-based.
Washington has given Tel Aviv the green light to continue using airstrikes
to target Hezbollah, assassinate its operatives, and sever its supply
lines. Israel has also been permitted to occupy strategic hills inside
Lebanese territory and conduct operations in frontline villages – areas
that were supposed to be fully secured by the Lebanese army following
Israel’s withdrawal.

The likelihood of renewed war remains high, particularly after Trump’s
administration approved an additional $3 billion in new weapons for Israel.

Meanwhile, the ceasefire mechanism, overseen by US Central Command General
Jasper Jeffers, French General Guillaume Bonchand, UNIFIL
<https://thecradle.co/articles/unifil-keeping-the-peace-or-enabling-an-occupation>,
and a Lebanese army officer, has proven ineffective, functioning as little
more than an online chat group: Israeli officers share satellite images of
suspected Hezbollah sites, instruct the Lebanese army to investigate, and
if the army refuses, Israeli warplanes strike instead.

These daily Israeli attacks are not limited to the south and Bekaa Valley
but have also reached Beirut itself, where Israel has intrusively demanded
inspections of sites in pro-Hezbollah neighborhoods.

The next phase will focus on the complete disarmament of Hezbollah in both
southern and northern Lebanon – a core objective of US policy, with
responsibility placed squarely on the Lebanese army.

Washington plans to strengthen the army while ensuring all weapons remain
under state control, including those held by Palestinian factions in
refugee camps. However, this support does not extend to equipping the army
for defense against Israeli aggressions – it is solely designed to
neutralize domestic resistance groups.

To prevent Hezbollah from rearming, the US is also ramping up support for
Lebanese border regiments to tighten control over the Syrian border. To
implement this plan, Washington has given the UK a limited but significant
role, allowing it to share the operational burden.

This strategy also involves integrating the Lebanese army into the US and
allied military framework, facilitated by a direct American military
presence at Lebanese air and naval bases. One key advantage of this
presence is the creation of a secure environment for US embassy staff,
whose numbers may reach 2,000 once the new embassy compound in Awkar
(the second
largest
<https://thecradle.co/articles/if-the-war-expands-will-western-facilities-become-the-new-target-banks>
in the world), near the small Dbayeh port north of Beirut, is fully
operational.

Lebanese-American lobbyists have even suggested that Trump might visit
Lebanon to inaugurate the embassy later this year or early next year. Since
2006, the US has provided approximately $3 billion to the Lebanese army,
none of it remotely useful for combatting genuine foreign threats to the
state. Despite Trump’s broader efforts to cut foreign expenditures, his
administration recently approved an additional $95 million for Lebanon’s
military.

*Paving the way for normalization*

On the political front, Washington is actively reshaping Lebanon’s internal
power balance through multiple initiatives. Israeli-born, former US envoy Amos
Hochstein
<https://thecradle.co/articles/rewriting-resolution-1701-hochsteins-diplomatic-cover-for-israeli-expansion>
and current US Ambassador Lisa Johnson played a direct role in securing the
election of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam –
something confirmed by several Lebanese MPs and pro-American journalists in
Beirut.

But this is only the beginning. New evidence points to deeper US
involvement, particularly in selecting ministers and security chiefs and
blocking Hezbollah-linked figures from positions in state institutions. The
US and Saudi Arabia also tried pressuring Aoun and Salam to exclude
Hezbollah’s allies from ministerial posts, which ended up forcing out key
Christian and Sunni partners of the resistance.

Washington is now focusing on securing strategic appointments in Lebanon,
particularly in the judiciary, key ministries, and the central bank.
Reports indicate that US embassy staff directly pressured politicians, MPs,
and business figures, warning them against attending Nasrallah’s funeral
<https://thecradle.co/articles/nasrallahs-funeral-a-million-voices-for-resistance>
– threatening punitive measures for those who did. As a result, neither the
president, prime minister, nor key party leaders attended.

Ultimately, Washington seeks to leverage post-war reconstruction efforts to
pressure the Lebanese public into distancing itself from Hezbollah and the
Amal Movement, making it clear that continued allegiance to these parties
will come at a cost.

The US aims to use Israel’s war in Lebanon to erase any opposition to
normalization with Tel Aviv – regardless of the potential fallout, be it
civil war, governmental collapse, or a divided Lebanese army. Whether Trump
succeeds in achieving that goal – or instead triggers widespread Lebanese
and even regional backlash – is yet to be seen.
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