Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Senior Fellow and director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute.
Articles & Testimony
While a desire to protect the nuclear deal had some effect on the Obama administration's posture toward the group, interagency coordination problems were a much bigger factor.
Did the Obama administration torpedo investigations into Hezbollah criminal activities in its zeal to secure the Iran deal? A recent Politico report concluded it did, but the story is more complicated than that. It is as wrong to accuse the Obama administration of “letting Hezbollah off the hook” as it is to assert that protecting the Iran nuclear deal had no impact on decisions to target Hezbollah’s criminal behavior. In fact, the real story here is not about Hezbollah or the Iran Deal so much as bureaucratic turf battles and competing intelligence assessments...
