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Washington Should Wake Up to the Fact that Hizbullah Runs Lebanon
(Al Arabiya) Tony Badran - The U.S. State Department invited Lebanon's Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil to Washington last week to participate in a conference to advance religious freedom. Prior to the meeting, Bassil met with newly sanctioned Hizbullah security chief Wafiq Safa, with whom Bassil has a close relationship. Following Hizbullah's designation as a terrorist group by the UK, Bassil declared the group would "remain embraced by state institutions and all Lebanese people." Hizbullah's grip on Lebanon is comprehensive. It exercises decisive influence on the security sector, but also directs the entire political order. Washington's long-standing policy that distinguishes between Hizbullah and the Lebanese state is sorely misguided. An investment in Lebanon's "state institutions" is an investment in the Hizbullah state. The writer is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.