BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - A few years ago, American aid to Lebanon was measured in the number of dairy cows a U.S. program gave to farmers. Now it is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, plus military help, as Washington tries to prop up a government seen as threatened by Iran and Syria.
Hezbollah, Iran's ally, says it is determined to wrench Lebanon away from the U.S. camp _ part of the reason it has launched its campaign to bring down Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
Members of the Hezbollah-led opposition see U.S. support as meddling that replaced Syria's heavy-handed control of Lebanese politics. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly called Saniora's Cabinet "the Feltman government" _ a reference to the U.S. ambassador in Beirut, Jeffrey Feltman, who meets regularly with Saniora and his ministers.
Government backers insist Washington plays no role in Cabinet decisions _ or its makeup, unlike Syria, which all but hand-picked the government, until its domination of Lebanon ended in 2005.
But U.S. diplomatic and economic support has been vital for Saniora's ability to stand up to Hezbollah's demands that his government be dissolved and replaced by one giving the Shiite militant group and its allies more power.
Last week, the United States pledged $770 million in aid for Lebanon at a Paris donors' conference that raised a total of $7.6 billion. The money is on top of $230 million Washington pledged at a meeting on reconstruction after the Hezbollah-Israel summer war.
(told ya so)
