Hezbollah is a ‘cancer’ and must be cut out, says top US envoy

A senior US envoy has called for the complete disarmament of Hezbollah, comparing the Iran-backed group to a “cancer” within Lebanon that must be excised if the country is to have any hope of recovery.

“When you have cancer, you don’t treat part of the cancer in your body and let the rest of it grow and fester,” said Morgan Ortagus, Deputy US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace. “You cut the cancer out.”

Speaking to Al Arabiya News’ Hadley Gamble during a diplomatic visit to the UAE, Ortagus dismissed long-standing fears that attempting to disarm Hezbollah could spark civil war. “We’ve been hearing that for 20 years,” she said.

Ortagus laid blame squarely on Iran and Hezbollah for dragging Lebanon into conflict with Israel. “The government of Lebanon didn’t want to go to war with Israel. It was on October 8, 2023, that Hezbollah and Iran decided to get into the war… people were forced into a war that nobody wanted to be in.”
Backing Lebanon’s reformers

Ortagus offered strong backing for Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, calling the current moment “a once-in-a-generation” opportunity for reform.

“Lebanon’s financial situation is as bad as it gets. They’re in a hole. It’s worse than Greece during the financial crisis,” she said.

She praised the formation of a technocratic Cabinet comprised of Lebanese diaspora professionals — including figures from HSBC, JP Morgan, and Blackstone — who returned to help rebuild the country. “They didn’t have a party affiliation, and they swore not to run for the [parliamentary] elections next year,” she noted.

The Biden and Trump administrations have both backed the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), and Ortagus insisted that the military is fully capable of assuming national security duties from Hezbollah. “If we’ve been providing assistance for several decades and they couldn’t do it, then there’s a problem with their US assistance… They have the capability. They just need the political will.”

She stressed the urgency of passing long-stalled legislation to reform Lebanon’s financial sector, including a bank secrecy law and a bank resolution framework, ahead of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings. “You can’t make the case [for support] if you haven’t passed the legislation in Parliament to show that you’re serious about these reforms.”