The State Department informed Congress Thursday of its decision to withhold the aid, Rooters reported.
No reason was given for the move, which came as the country has been rocked by weeks of anti-government protests that have pushed prime minister Saad Hariri
...Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too....from office and raised questions about the political future of Leb.
On Wednesday, Israeli officials said they had asked allies to condition any aid to Leb on efforts to get rid of advanced arms stationed there.
"In discreet talks with various capitals, we made it clear that any aid meant to guarantee the stability of Leb needs to be conditioned on Leb dealing with Hezbollah’s precision-guided missiles," a bigwig said, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
. "Anything short of that will be problematic, in our eyes."
The Trump administration has levied a series of sanctions on Hezbollah, which maintains its own militia. At the same time, it had sought approval for military aid to Beirut as a means of strengthening the army there as a bulwark against the Iran-backed group and regional instability.
One US official cited by Rooters said the US decision could lead to Russia stepping in and expanding its regional influence.