The Trump administration is worried that Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime is working to undermine neighboring Lebanon by driving up exchange rates for its weakened currency and ratcheting up influence on the fragile government through Iran-backed Hezbollah, according to a State Department finding shared with Congress this summer and obtained by Foreign Policy.
Foreign Policy: US fears Syria’s Assad meddling in fragile Lebanon
Lebanese Shiite Muslims carry pictures of Syrian president Bachar al-Assad, flags of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement (yellow) as well as a Palestinian (R) and Syrian national flag (L) during commemorations marking al-Quds (Jerusalem) day in the village of Maroun al-Ras, near the Lebanese Israeli border on June 8, 2018.
