Why US Aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces Should Come with Conditions

When I served as assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs during the first Trump administration, I spent much of my time trying to disabuse my French counterparts of their reflexive inclination to bail Lebanon out of its self-inflicted financial crisis. Instead of participating in another failed Paris donor conference, the administration pressed for conditionality, making US support for an IMF program and the disbursement of cash contributions contingent on Beirut implementing meaningful economic reforms. Seven years on, Lebanon has yet to embrace significant reform and the economic morass continues. Still, Washington’s approach—requiring tangible actions in return for billions of dollars of aid—remains the correct policy. The United States should take the same approach to military assistance to Lebanon...

Read the full article on the National Interest website.