U.S. redirects $95 million in military aid from Egypt to Lebanon

The United States is reallocating over $100 million in military aid to Lebanon, with $95 million redirected from Egypt and $7.5 million originally allocated to Israel, according to multiple news outlets.

This funding aims to bolster the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) along Lebanon's southern border and assist U.N. peacekeepers patrolling the “Blue Line,” the demarcation line separating Israel and Lebanon since 2006, as reported by the Associated Press.

A State Department notification sent to Congress highlighted the LAF as a “key partner” in implementing the ceasefire agreement signed in November between Israel and Lebanon. The notice emphasized that the success of the ceasefire requires a strengthened LAF, which will depend on substantial support from the United States and its allies.

This decision follows criticism from lawmakers regarding President Joe Biden’s allocation of the full $1.3 billion in aid to Egypt in September, despite longstanding human rights concerns. Typically, the U.S. withholds a portion of the congressionally mandated aid to Egypt due to its failure to meet certain human rights benchmarks.

Senator Chris Murphy, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reportedly applauded the decision to divert the funds to Lebanon.

 “Our military aid should advance U.S. values and national security interests in the Middle East, not automatically reward the Egyptian government for failing to meet the human rights conditions set by Congress,” he said in a statement.

An anonymous aide told Reuters: “This is a way to say, ‘This funding that Egypt didn’t really deserve and doesn’t really need, let’s reprogram that and use it more effectively.”