ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
Updated:

US Senator Lindsey Graham claimed that the US does not have a reliable partner in Lebanon in a post on X/Twitter on Friday evening.

Graham met with Lebanese Armed Forces head General Rodolphe Haykal on Friday. In the post, the Republican senator from South Carolina claimed that he ended the meeting early because Haykal refused to say that Hezbollah was a terror organization.

“I just had a very brief meeting with the Lebanese Chief of Defense General Rodolphe Haykal. I asked him point blank if he believes Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. He said, ‘No, not in the context of Lebanon.’ With that, I ended the meeting,” Graham wrote.

“They are clearly a terrorist organization. Hezbollah has American blood on its hands. Just ask the U.S. Marines.”

SMOKE BILLOWS from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of al-Mjadel on December 4. The IDF said it would strike what it described as Hezbollah military infrastructure in southern Lebanon and warned people in two villages to evacuate immediately.
SMOKE BILLOWS from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of al-Mjadel on December 4. The IDF said it would strike what it described as Hezbollah military infrastructure in southern Lebanon and warned people in two villages to evacuate immediately. (credit: Kawant Haju/AFP via Getty Images)

The senator added that “too much is at stake” in the Middle East for Haykal’s attitude, and said that he was “tired of the double speak.”

“As long as this attitude exists from the Lebanese Armed Forces, I don’t think we have a reliable partner in them,” he concluded.

US pushes for Israel, Hezbollah to maintain ceasefire 

This comes as the US pushes to maintain the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which was signed in late 2024.

Senior Israeli and Lebanese delegations have since met to discuss the ceasefire, the first such meeting since 1991.

Following the meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office released a statement saying that “the meeting was held in a positive atmosphere, and it was agreed that ideas would be formulated to advance possible economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon.”