A senior Trump administration official denounced the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah this week, calling the movement a “cancer” which must be removed from Lebanon.

In an interview with the Saudi Al Arabiya outlet on Monday, President Donald Trump’s Deputy Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Morgan Ortagus cited the terms of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire reached last November, under which Hezbollah must disarm and remain north of the Litani River – away from the Israeli frontier.

Ortagus went on to blame the Shi’ite group for drawing Lebanon into a war which had initially been limited to Israel and the Gaza Strip.

“The government of Lebanon didn’t want to go to war with Israel. It was on October 8, 2023, that Hezbollah and Iran decided to get into the war,” Ortagus said. “People were forced into a war that nobody wanted to be in.”

Should Hezbollah continue to operate as a de facto military force within Lebanese territory, Ortagus added, Beirut will be unable to reassert its sovereign control over the country and confront major national challenges, including its ongoing economic crisis.

“When you have cancer, you don’t treat part of the cancer in your body and let the rest of it grow and fester,” Ortagus said. “You cut the cancer out.”

“Lebanon’s financial situation is as bad as it gets. They’re in a hole. It’s worse than Greece during the financial crisis.”

Ortagus, who previously served as spokeswoman for the State Department during the first Trump administration and had a stint as a Fox News contributor, dismissed concerns that requiring Hezbollah to disarm would provoke a new Lebanese civil war.

“We’ve been hearing that for 20 years.”

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