Lebanese soldiers inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Tayr Filsey, in southern Lebanon, near the Litani River, on Nov. 13, 2025. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
The U.S. decision to cancel Lebanese Army commander Rodolph Haykal’s meetings in Washington — a first — has been widely perceived as a sanction with humiliating effects, both in political circles and within army ranks.Among the military, the rebuke from Washington, the army’s main financial backer, is viewed as particularly unfair. Troops believe they have completed most of their mission to dismantle Hezbollah’s arsenal south of the Litani, an area they say will be “fully cleared by the end of December,” the deadline Haykal set before moving on to the rest of the territory.Sources tell L'Orient-Le Jour that many officers say they do not understand the stance of their American partner, whose growing impatience suggests a lack of awareness of conditions on the ground — especially in southern Lebanon — and of the difficulty of the...
The U.S. decision to cancel Lebanese Army commander Rodolph Haykal’s meetings in Washington — a first — has been widely perceived as a sanction with humiliating effects, both in political circles and within army ranks.Among the military, the rebuke from Washington, the army’s main financial backer, is viewed as particularly unfair. Troops believe they have completed most of their mission to dismantle Hezbollah’s arsenal south of the Litani, an area they say will be “fully cleared by the end of December,” the deadline Haykal set before moving on to the rest of the territory.Sources tell L'Orient-Le Jour that many officers say they do not understand the stance of their American partner, whose growing impatience suggests a lack of awareness of conditions on the ground — especially in southern Lebanon — and of the...
