“We have 40,000 people being paid by Iran to fight. What are you gonna do with them? Take their weapon and say ‘by the way, good luck planting olive trees’? It can’t happen. We have to help them,” said Trump envoy Tom Barrack.
With less than a week until Lebanon’s cabinet meets to approve the army’s Hezbollah disarmament plan, U.S. officials are finalizing Gulf state funding commitments for a massive jobs program designed to give the terror group’s 40,000 fighters an economic alternative to Iranian payrolls.
Trump envoy Tom Barrack announced Tuesday that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are ready to invest in an economic zone along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, creating employment opportunities for Hezbollah members and supporters once they surrender their weapons.
“We have to have money coming into the system. The money will come from the Gulf,” Barrack told reporters after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
