The approval, confirmed by a State Department spokesperson on Wednesday, marks one of the rare instances of foreign military aid moving through the Trump administration.
In January, the State Department instituted a 90-day funding pause on all aid, with exceptions only for Israel and Egypt. Funding to Ukraine was also recently cut amid the very public differences with Kyiv on ending the war there.
The $95m in aid was originally earmarked for Egypt, but the Joe Biden administration diverted the funds to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).
The funding underscores how the balance of power in Lebanon has been upended since Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza was unleashed after the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Hezbollah started attacking the occupied territories the next day in support of Palestinians in Gaza, but suffered a damaging response at the hands of Israel.
After years of gridlock in impoverished Lebanon, former army chief Joseph Aoun was elected president in January.
The US pushed for Aoun’s election in parliament by using the promise of funding for Lebanon’s reconstruction from Saudi Arabia. He had been opposed by Hezbollah.
Aoun, a Maronite Christian, then selected Nawaf Salam, a scion of a prominent Sunni family, as Lebanon’s prime minister.
Hezbollah still retains widespread support in Lebanon, particularly among the country’s impoverished Shia community. Underscoring Hezbollah’s resilience, hundreds of thousands of people turned out in February for the funeral of the group’s slain leader, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah.
But Hezbollah has come under pressure from Lebanon’s new government in ways that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.
In February, Lebanon’s government indefinitely suspended flights to and from Iran. The Lebanese army fired tear gas at Hezbollah supporters protesting the move.
At Beirut’s airport, Lebanese security officials recently claimed they seized $2.5m in cash destined for Hezbollah that a Turkish national was carrying.
Reuters also reported that Lebanon’s new government plans to go to the IMF for a bailout, a move long resisted by Hezbollah and other political parties. Lebanon’s economy crashed in 2019 when its currency plunged 98 percent. Most of the country is living in poverty.
The United States has clearly demonstrated that it sees itself as the rising outside power in Lebanon, after decades of having tried and failed to reduce Hezbollah’s influence.
“Hezbollah was defeated by Israel, and we are grateful to our ally Israel for defeating Hezbollah,” US deputy special envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus said in February after meeting Lebanon’s President Aoun in Beirut. Those comments from an American official at the Baabda Palace would have been unthinkable just a year ago.
The LAF have deployed to vast swaths of southern Lebanon that Hezbollah previously controlled. But Israel has maintained troops in five strategic vantage points across southern Lebanon in defiance of a deadline for their withdrawal.
According to reports, France and the US were trying to encourage Israel to fully withdraw by suggesting the deployment of a peacekeeping force or even private security companies in strategic areas. However, Aoun strongly rejected the deployment of private contractors.
Israel announced its decision to stay in Lebanon was agreed on with a US-led ceasefire monitor mechanism.
Lebanon’s government has stressed it will take its complaint to the United Nations and has slammed Israel’s violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
