Trump envoy says Hezbollah ‘a cancer,’ they can’t sit in new Lebanese government

In two interviews, Morgan Ortagus, the US deputy special presidential envoy to the Middle East, criticizes Hezbollah, calling the group “a cancer” and saying the group must be disarmed as soon as possible.

In an interview with the Saudi channel Al Arabiya, Ortagus describes Hezbollah as a “cancer.” “When you have cancer in the body, you don’t just treat part of it — you cut it all out,” she says.

She adds: “Lebanese leaders can either choose to let Lebanon decline further into the abyss or take back their country. If they make the hard decision, they will have US support.”

The interviews followed Ortagus’s second visit to Lebanon, during which she met with the newly elected Lebanese president and prime minister, as well as members of parliament and other government officials.

In another interview with the Lebanese channel LBCI, the envoy says it was personally important to her that Hezbollah not be represented in the newly formed Lebanese government.

However, regarding the possibility of normalization between Israel and Lebanon, she states that the topic did not come up in her meetings with Lebanese officials. “You have to crawl before you can run — we’re still in the crawling stage,” she says.