Lebanon’s government will present a plan later this week to try to persuade Hezbollah to disarm, a top U.S. envoy said Tuesday, though his remarks on the day’s developments were overshadowed by his widely criticized admonition to Lebanese journalists to “act civilized” and not be “animalistic.”
“The moment this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we’re gone,” Thomas J. Barrack Jr., one of President Trump’s key envoys to the Middle East, said after arriving at a packed news conference in Beirut.
“Act civilized, act kind, act tolerant — because this is the problem with what’s happening in the region,” Mr. Barrack said.
Mr. Barrack, who spoke with the reporters after meeting with Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, drew sharp condemnation in the small Mediterranean nation for his comments. Lebanese journalists and commentators accused him of reviving colonial-era tropes, while criticism and derisive hashtags quickly spread across social media, from sarcastic riffs about the word “animalistic” to jibes about foreign envoys talking down to the Lebanese.
For many in Lebanon and the wider Arab world, the uneasy remarks by a top U.S. envoy only added to outrage over American support for Israel during the war in the Gaza Strip. Some also saw the comments as the latest symbol of Washington’s increasing stewardship over Lebanon in the wake of Israel’s devastating war last year with the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Amid the furor, the office of Lebanon’s presidency issued a statement saying it “regrets the words” used by “one of our guests.” Lebanon’s Press Editors’ Syndicate, the country’s official professional association for journalists, also condemned the remarks and called on Mr. Barrack and the State Department to issue a public apology.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The backlash against Mr. Barrack came at a particularly sensitive juncture for Lebanon, as the embattled nation faces growing divisions over calls for Hezbollah to disarm.
In recent months, Lebanon’s new government has faced mounting pressure from the United States and Gulf states to complete the group’s disarmament, as mandated by the cease-fire agreement reached in November. Although no easy feat, that step is seen as essential to unlocking billions in foreign aid needed to rebuild the country after Lebanon’s deadliest and most destructive war in decades.
Mr. Barrack, joined by American senators and another top U.S. envoy, Morgan Ortagus, met with Lebanese officials on Tuesday, two days after talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
In a rare statement of praise for the “momentous decision” by the Lebanese government to try to disarm Hezbollah, Mr. Netanyahu’s office on Monday signaled that Israel would begin withdrawing from the country’s south, where it retains hold of a handful of military positions, if the Lebanese military disarmed Hezbollah.
“What Israel has now said is: We don’t want to occupy Lebanon. We’re happy to withdraw from Lebanon, and we will meet those withdrawal expectations with our plan as soon as we see what is the plan to actually disarm Hezbollah,” Mr. Barrack said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Lebanon’s government tasked the country’s military with devising a plan for Hezbollah’s disarmament by the end of this month, a once-unimaginable move that prompted defiance from the militant group.
Hezbollah’s leaders have repeatedly said that they will not consider disarmament until Israeli troops withdraw from the country, provoking fears that Lebanon could be on the brink of civil unrest. The group had called for protests against the government’s plan this week, but they were later suspended.
Much of Lebanon remains in ruins after the recent war, particularly areas in the country’s hard-hit south, where Hezbollah has long exercised de facto control. In an apparent attempt to offer incentives, Mr. Barrack said on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were ready to invest in an economic zone in southern Lebanon that would create jobs for Hezbollah’s members if the group lays down its weapons.
“We have to have money coming into the system,” said Mr. Barrack. “The money will come from the Gulf.”
Dayana Iwaza contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
Euan Ward is a Times reporter covering Lebanon and Syria. He is based in Beirut.
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