The international community will support Lebanon's military should ISIS launch an attack against the country, a lawmaker who participated in talks with senior U.S. officials in Washington said Tuesday. "We were assured by a Pentagon official that the Army would receive international military support if ISIS attacks Lebanon," Development and Liberation bloc's MP Yassine Jaber told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5). The lawmaker was part of a parliamentary delegation that visited Washington at the end of last month to discuss issues related to financing and combating terrorism with U.S. officials after Washington imposed further sanctions on Hezbollah. A large number of ISIS and Nusra Front militants are entrenched along Lebanon's northeastern border with Syria. Security reports have warned that ISIS recruited young men to join militant ranks and is trying to establish an emirate in northern Lebanon, consisting of Tripoli, Dinnieh, Akkar and part of the Bekaa Valley. "We haven't been asked about Hezbollah. Instead, we found great support, appreciation and understanding for our demand not to overwhelm Lebanon," the MP said. The committee, formed by Speaker Nabih Berri, comprised of Jaber, Alain Aoun, Robert Fadel, Bassem Shabb, Mohammad Qabbani, Berri's media adviser Ali Hamdan and former Ambassador to Washington Antoine Chedid. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration accuses Hezbollah of using millions of dollars from cocaine sales in the U.S. and Europe to purchase weapons in Syria, where the party has sent its fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad in the country's five-year civil war. The U.S., which designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, has sanctioned more than 100 individuals and entities associated with the group.
