Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Lebanon last week, where he spent two days making highly scripted appearances, brought condemnation from Congress and the State Department. The visit was part of the Islamic Republic’s ongoing campaign of attempting to strengthen ties not just with Shi’a militants in Hezbollah, but with the Lebanese government.

U.S.-Lebanese military cooperation at a crossroads
Posted By Eli Clifton
Thursday, October 21, 2010 – 3:23 PM

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Lebanon last week, where he spent two days making highly scripted appearances, brought condemnation from Congress and the State Department. The visit was part of the Islamic Republic’s ongoing campaign of attempting to strengthen ties not just with Shi’a militants in Hezbollah, but with the Lebanese government.

Hezbollah, which has received assistance from Iran for the past two-decades, has gained in strength since the 2006 Lebanon war and has tightened its control over large portions of Southern Lebanon along Israel’s border. But with condemnations of Ahmadinejad’s trip to Lebanon, and the near daily warnings about a third Lebanon war, the issue of U.S. military aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), which has been held up in Congress since August, is becoming a topic of growing importance. And withholding the aid could even be counterproductive to U.S. attempts to contain Iranian influence.

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