Pompeo: Hezbollah is Definitely More Powerful than before

By Staff

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo feared what he called “the growing influence of the Hezbollah in Lebanon."

Speaking on the sideline of the Warsaw conference, Pompeo told Al Hurra television station that “Hezbollah is definitely more powerful than they were four or five years ago.”

“I regret that” he said in the interview.

He also expressed disappointment at the absence of Lebanon from the meeting of European and Middle Eastern leaders in Poland. The decision was announced by Lebanese foreign minister Gebran Bassil after he met his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif in Beirut last week.

“We want it [Lebanon] to be unified and we want Iran out” Pompeo claimed.

The issue of illicit funding to the group was discussed in Warsaw, including ways to “push back against their money laundering, some of which takes place through Lebanese financial institutions,” Pompeo explained.