Russia said it plans to ‘interrogate’ two suspects in the attempted assassination of a top military intelligence official who was ambushed in Moscow on Friday, according to a Russian newspaper.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that two suspects in the shooting of Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev ‘will soon be interrogated,’ citing a source close to the investigation.

After questioning, the suspects are expected to be charged, the report said, according to Reuters. 

Alekseyev, the deputy head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, was shot three times in his Moscow apartment building on Friday and rushed to a hospital.

The Associated Press reported that the business daily Kommersant said the shooter posed as a delivery person and shot Alekseyev twice in the stairway of his apartment building, injuring him in the foot and arm. Alekseyev allegedly attempted to wrest the weapon away and was shot again in the chest before the attacker fled, the report said.

Kommersant reported that Alekseyev underwent successful surgery and regained consciousness Saturday but remained under medical supervision.

Russian news outlet TASS reported that the surgery was successful and that Alekseyev’s injuries were not life-threatening.

The outlet reported that the Investigative Committee launched a criminal investigation on charges of attempted murder and illicit trafficking in firearms.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, alleging — without providing evidence — that it was intended to sabotage peace talks. Ukraine denied any involvement.

Alekseyev, 64, has been under U.S. sanctions over alleged Russian cyber interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The European Union also sanctioned him over the 2018 poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England.

The assassination attempt came as President Donald Trump’s administration has been seeking to help broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.

The warring nations agreed to a prisoner swap this week, according to readouts posted on X by U.S. special presidential envoy for peace missions Steve Witkoff and Ukraine’s national security and defense council minister Rustem Umerov.

Fox News’ Alex Nitzberg and Reuters contributed to this report.

The indirect nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran mediated by Oman were ‘very good,’ according to President Donald Trump.

‘Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly. We’ll have to see what that deal is. But I think Iran looks like they want to make a deal very badly, as they should. Last time they decided maybe not to do it, but I think they probably feel differently,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday.

The president added that the U.S. had a ‘big Armada’ heading towards Iran, something he has spoken about in the past.

When he was pressed on how long the U.S. would be willing to wait to make a deal with Iran, the president indicated some flexibility, saying that he believes the two nations can reach an agreement.

‘It can be reached. Well, we have to get in position. We have plenty of time. If you remember Venezuela, we waited around for a while, and we’re in no rush. We have very good [talks] with Iran,’ Trump said.

‘They know the consequences if they don’t make a deal. The consequences are very steep. So we’ll see what happens. But they had a very good meeting with a very high representative of Iran,’ the president added.

American and Iranian representatives held separate meetings with Omani officials on Friday amid flaring tensions between Washington and Tehran. Oman’s Foreign Ministry said that the meetings were ‘focused on preparing the appropriate conditions for resuming diplomatic and technical negotiations.’

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that indirect nuclear talks were ‘a good start’ and that there was a ‘consensus’ that the negotiations would continue.

‘After a long period without dialogue, our viewpoints were conveyed, and our concerns were expressed. Our interests, the rights of the Iranian people, and all matters that needed to be stated were presented in a very positive atmosphere, and the other side’s views were also heard,’ Araghchi said.

‘It was a good start, but its continuation depends on consultations in our respective capitals and deciding on how to proceed,’ he added.

While both sides expressed optimism about a possible deal, the U.S. moved to impose fresh sanctions on Iran after the talks. The State Department announced that the U.S. was sanctioning ’15 entities, two individuals and 14 shadow fleet vessels connected to the illicit trade in Iranian petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical products.’

‘Instead of investing in the welfare of its own people and crumbling infrastructure, the Iranian regime continues to fund destabilizing activities around the world and step up its repression inside Iran,’ the statement read.

‘So long as the Iranian regime attempts to evade sanctions and generate oil and petrochemical revenues to fund such oppressive behavior and support terrorist activities and proxies, the United States will act to hold both the Iranian regime and its partners accountable.’

The Iranian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on the sanctions.

Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, outlined the Trump administration’s ‘America First’-centered policies that he is adopting in a wide-ranging, exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, as the former national security advisor asserts himself in the role.

Waltz rejected claims that the present U.N. cash crisis was primarily a result of unpaid U.S. dues. ‘The United States pays to the U.N. system, more than 180 countries combined,’ noting, ‘We have historically been the largest supporter of the U.N., but under President Trump, we’re demanding reform.’

Waltz argued the organization has drifted from its founding mission. ‘There are times where the U.N. has been incredibly helpful to U.S. foreign policy and objectives, but there are also times where it’s working against us,’ he said. ‘It has become bloated, it has become duplicative, it has lost its way from its original founding.’

Waltz framed the approach as part of an ‘America First’ doctrine focused on accountability for taxpayer dollars and burden-sharing among member states, saying that Washington’s financial leverage is intended to force change. ‘When we give the U.N. some tough love … these are the American taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars,’ he said. ‘At the end of the day, we will get the American taxpayers’ money’s worth, so to speak, out of this organization.’

At the U.N. earlier this week, the secretary-general framed the crisis as a matter of unpaid obligations by member states. When asked what gives him confidence the United States will pay, he said, ‘The question is not one of confidence. Obligations are obligations. So in relation to obligations, it’s not a matter of having confidence. It’s a matter of obligations being met.’

The secretary-general’s spokesperson, in response to a Fox News Digital question, rejected the idea that the organization’s financial crisis stems from internal management and echoed that position, saying the funding situation is ‘very clear,’ pointing to the fact that some of the largest contributors have not paid, while arguing the secretary-general has been a ‘responsible steward’ of U.N. finances and has pursued management reform since the start of his tenure.

‘They just agreed to cut nearly 3,000 headquarters bureaucratic positions,’ Waltz said in their defense. ‘They agreed to the first-ever budget cut in U.N. history in 80 years, a 15% budget cut, and they’re cutting global peacekeeping forces by 25%.’

‘What’s interesting is, behind the scenes, a lot of people are saying thank you. This place needs to be better. President Trump is right. It’s not living up to its potential. We should ask ourselves, why isn’t the U.N. resolving things like border disputes with Cambodia and Thailand? Why aren’t they really driving the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan to a resolution? That’s what the U.N. was built for. Thank God President Trump is, but he’s asking the question of why is he having to do all of this. Where’s the United Nations? So we’re determined here to help them live up to their reforms, live up to their mandate, live up to their mission.’

‘You have to have one place in the world where everyone can talk,’ he said. ‘The president is a president of peace. He puts diplomacy first.’

Asked whether U.N. leadership is doing enough to reform the world body, Waltz said Secretary-General António Guterres has begun moving in the right direction but should have acted sooner.

‘The secretary general has taken steps in the right direction. Frankly, I wish he had done it much sooner in a much more aggressive way,’ Waltz said.

He cited structural changes and consolidation efforts while arguing that measurable results must follow.

‘The U.N.’s budget has quadrupled in the last 25 years,’ Waltz said. ‘We haven’t seen a quadrupling of peace around the world. In fact, it’s gone the opposite direction.’

When asked if the administration’s Gaza peace framework and a mechanism known as the Board of Peace are alternatives to the U.N., Waltz said they are intended to complement the institution rather than replace it.

‘The president doesn’t intend the Board of Peace to replace the U.N., but he intends to drive a lot of these conflicts to conclusion,’ he said.

‘As part of the president’s 20-point peace plan was also the Board of Peace to actually implement it,’ he said.

He said the Board of Peace involves regional governments and is designed to create a stabilization structure on the ground. ‘The Egyptians are involved, Turkey’s involved, the Gulf Arabs, Jordan and importantly, the Israelis,’ he said. ‘We’re going to have a stabilization force, we’re going to have a funding mechanism for rebuilding humanitarian aid … and this Palestinian technocratic committee that can restore government services.’

Looking ahead, Waltz said the administration wants a narrower, more mission-driven U.N. focused on security, conflict resolution and economic development.

‘I see … a much more focused U.N. that we have taken back to the basics of promoting peace and security around the world,’ he said.

He also called for greater private sector involvement and less reliance on traditional aid structures. ‘This old model of NGOs and agencies going to governments and just saying, ‘More, more, more’ — it isn’t sustainable,’ he said. ‘If we’re driving environments in developing countries that welcome American businesses … we break that dependence on development aid and everyone benefits.’

Ultimately, Waltz framed his role as executing foreign policy vision. ‘I’m a vessel for the president’s vision,’ he said. ‘From my perspective, at the end of his administration, he looks at a U.N. that is leading in driving countries toward peaceful conclusions to conflicts around the world and asking for his help. That’s a much better dynamic than the president having to do it all and saying, ‘Where is the U.N. in these conflicts?’ And so we’re looking to very much flip that on its head, and we have a plan to do it.’

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order requiring the government to assess foreign weapons sales based on their impact on U.S. production capacity for key systems and to favor allies whose defense investments and strategic importance align with U.S. national security priorities.

Under the order, obtained first by Fox News Digital, the Departments of War, State and Commerce are instructed to ensure that U.S. arms transfers support weapons systems deemed most operationally relevant to the National Security Strategy, reinforce critical supply chains, and prioritize partners that have invested in their own defense and occupy strategically important regions.

The administration argues that past arms transfer policy allowed foreign demand to shape U.S. production decisions, contributing to backlogs, cost overruns and delivery delays that left both the U.S. military and its allies waiting years for critical equipment.

‘The America First Arms Transfer Strategy will now leverage over $300 billion in annual defense sales to strategically reindustrialize the United States and rapidly deliver American-manufactured weapons to help our partners and allies establish deterrence and defend themselves,’ according to a White House fact sheet.

A central goal of the order is to speed up a foreign military sales process that defense officials and industry leaders have long criticized as slow and overly bureaucratic. The order directs federal agencies to identify ways to streamline enhanced end-use monitoring requirements, third-party transfer approvals and the congressional notification process — steps the administration says have contributed to years-long delays in delivering U.S. weapons overseas.

The order also creates a new Promoting American Military Sales Task Force charged with overseeing implementation of the strategy and tracking major defense sales across the government. In a move aimed at increasing accountability, the administration says agencies will be required to publish aggregate quarterly performance metrics showing how quickly defense sales cases are being executed.

 The strategy also signals a shift in how the United States prioritizes its partners. The order directs the government to favor countries that have invested in their own defense and occupy strategically important regions, effectively tying arms sales decisions more closely to U.S. military planning and geographic priorities.

Other partners could face longer timelines or lower priority if their requests do not align with U.S. strategic or industrial objectives. While the order does not name specific countries, it reflects an effort to focus limited U.S. production capacity on allies viewed as most critical to executing the National Security Strategy.

The order also instructs the War, State and Commerce departments to ‘find efficiencies in the Enhanced End Use Monitoring criteria, the Third-Party Transfer process, and the Congressional Notification process.’

Congress will likely be watching how the administration implements the order, especially provisions aimed at speeding both oversight of U.S. weapons once they are sold abroad and the process for notifying lawmakers about major arms deals. Lawmakers have argued those steps help prevent misuse of U.S. weapons, even as they have criticized delays that slow deliveries to allies.

The order follows a series of recent defense-related executive actions taken by Trump. In January 2026, he signed an order directing defense contractors to prioritize production capacity, innovation and on-time delivery over stock buybacks and other corporate distributions.

That built on an April 2025 order aimed at improving speed and accountability in the foreign military sales system, as well as a January 2025 order focused on modernizing defense acquisitions and reducing red tape across the defense industrial base.

Former president Bill Clinton said on X that he has shared what he knows about the crimes of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in a sworn statement shared with the House Oversight Committee, which both Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify in front of under subpoena pressure.  

‘I have called for the full release of the Epstein files. I have provided a sworn statement of what I know,’ the former president said on X, formerly Twitter, Friday afternoon. ‘And just this week, I’ve agreed to appear in person before the committee. But it’s still not enough for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee.’

In the wake of news that the Clintons would comply with House Republicans’ subpoenas to testify, after concerns they would not and threats of contempt, Republicans accused the Clintons of ‘requesting special treatment.’

After the Clinton’s attorneys sent the House Oversight Committee a letter indicating they would comply and testify under certain conditions, Democrat Ranking Member of the committee, Robert Garcia, said the letter amounted to full compliance with the committee’s demands.

However, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer disputed the characterization, telling Fox News Digital the agreement lacked specificity.  

‘The Clintons’ counsel has said they agree to terms, but those terms lack clarity yet again, and they have provided no dates for their depositions,’ Comer said. ‘The only reason they have said they agree to terms is because the House has moved forward with contempt. I will clarify the terms they are agreeing to and then discuss next steps with my committee members.’

The Clintons’ change of heart led the House to temporarily pause proceedings on holding them in contempt on Monday night. 

Democrats on the committee have pointed out that Comer has not pushed to hold others who did not appear in contempt, nor has he made any threats against the DOJ for failing to produce all of its documents on Epstein by a deadline agreed to by Congress late last year. The department has produced a fraction of the documents expected so far.

‘Now, Chairman Comer says he wants cameras, but only behind closed doors. Who benefits from this arrangement? It’s not Epstein’s victims, who deserve justice,’ Clinton said in his X post on Friday afternoon. ‘Not the public, who deserve the truth. It serves only partisan interests. This is not fact-finding, it’s pure politics.’

‘Now, Chairman Comer says he wants cameras, but only behind closed doors,’ he continued. ‘Who benefits from this arrangement? It’s not Epstein’s victims, who deserve justice. Not the public, who deserve the truth. It serves only partisan interests. This is not fact-finding, it’s pure politics.’

 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

The United States and Russia are entering a new phase of nuclear relations with no treaty limiting their arsenals, as President Donald Trump calls for a sweeping new arms control agreement and Russian officials warn that Washington’s approach would make any deal impossible.

The last agreement that capped U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons, known as New START, expired Thursday, leaving the world’s two largest nuclear powers without legally binding limits on their arsenals or an inspection regime.

Trump called New START a ‘bad deal’ that was being ‘grossly violated,’ and said the United States should instead pursue a ‘new, improved and modernized treaty.’

Russian officials quickly pushed back. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s security council, said U.S. criticism of New START ‘means one thing: there’ll never be a treaty under these terms,’ arguing Washington is demanding limits that ignore other nuclear-armed states and new weapons systems.

The United States and Russia have entered a new phase of nuclear relations with no treaty now limiting their arsenals, after the last remaining arms control agreement between the two powers expired this week. As the two powers seek to negotiate a new framework, each is seeking to expand restrictions on each other’s allies, with the U.S. aiming to include China, and Russia countering by saying Britain and France should also be covered.

Speaking Wednesday at the Conference on Disarmament, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno said New START’s limits no longer reflect today’s nuclear landscape.

‘As of yesterday, New START and its central limits have expired,’ DiNanno said. ‘Even if we could have legally extended the treaty, it would not have been beneficial for the United States — or the world — to do so.’

‘A bilateral treaty with only one nuclear power is simply inappropriate in 2026 and going forward,’ DiNanno said, pointing to Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons and China’s unconstrained buildup.

In practice, New START’s verification regime had already been largely dormant since 2023, when Russia stopped allowing on-site inspections of its nuclear facilities and halted required data exchanges under the treaty, even as both sides said they continued to observe its numerical limits.

But China remains far behind the United States and Russia in overall nuclear warheads and is unlikely to accept binding limits while it is still expanding its arsenal, arms control experts say.

The United States and Russia each maintain roughly 4,000 total nuclear warheads, with about 1,700 deployed on strategic delivery systems, according to expert estimates. China, by contrast, is projected to reach about 1,000 warheads by 2030.

Arms control experts caution that while New START had clear shortcomings, its expiration still removes an important stabilizing mechanism. Lynn Rusten, a former senior U.S. arms control official now at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said the treaty provided a foundation that is now gone.

‘We did lose something,’ Rusten told Fox News Digital. ‘It would have been good to continue that as a foundation and a stabilizing platform on which to negotiate a better deal.’

The growing uncertainty comes as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists last month moved its symbolic Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight — the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe — citing rising nuclear risks, the collapse of arms control frameworks, and intensifying great-power competition.

Rusten said the immediate concern is not a rapid buildup of new missiles or bombers, but how many warheads each side could deploy on systems they already have.

‘Both countries have the capacity to increase deployed warheads on their existing strategic delivery vehicles,’ she said. ‘It would take time, but they could add several hundred if they chose to.’

Russia has also developed a number of nontraditional delivery systems that were not limited by New START.

Those systems include a nuclear-powered cruise missile known as Burevestnik, sometimes referred to as Skyfall, and a nuclear-powered underwater torpedo called Poseidon — weapons Moscow has touted as capable of evading existing missile defenses and striking targets at intercontinental range.

‘Those are systems that really should be included in any future treaty,’ Rusten said. ‘They’re troubling because they’re just adding to the number and type of strategic-range nuclear systems that can kill huge numbers of people.’

Separate from those novel strategic systems, experts say one of the biggest unresolved issues in nuclear arms control involves so-called tactical, or non-strategic, nuclear weapons — shorter-range nuclear arms designed for battlefield use rather than long-range strikes against cities.

Russia is believed to possess far more of these weapons than the United States, and they have never been subject to legally binding arms control limits. While Washington drastically reduced its tactical nuclear stockpile after the Cold War, Moscow retained and later modernized many of its own, viewing them as a key tool to offset NATO’s conventional military strength.

‘Russia has thousands of tactical nuclear weapons, and they’ve never been covered by a treaty,’ Rusten said. ‘That’s been a long-standing concern for the United States and our NATO allies, and it’s one of the hardest issues to negotiate.’

Because they are smaller, more flexible, and potentially usable earlier in a conflict, experts say tactical nuclear weapons pose a unique escalation risk — lowering the threshold for nuclear use and complicating efforts to prevent a crisis from spiraling into a broader nuclear exchange.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced Friday that he’s investigating companies linked to Ilhan Omar’s, D-Minn., husband, citing a dramatic increase in value in a short time and raising questions about whether their success could be tied to widespread fraud schemes uncovered in Minnesota. 

In a letter published Friday morning, Comer said the Oversight Committee would conduct a closer look at the ventures of Tim Mynett, who married Omar in March 2020.

‘We want to know: who’s funding this? And who’s buying access?’ Comer said.

In his letter, Comer described how two of Mynett’s companies, eStCru LL. and Rose Lake Capital LL., went from being worth $51,000 in 2023 to up to $30 million in 2024.

‘Given that these companies do not publicly list their investors or where their money comes from, this sudden jump in values raises concerns that unknown individuals may be investing to gain influence with your wife,’ Comer wrote in his letter to Mynett, citing congressional financial disclosures.

The Oversight Committee is asking Mynett to produce communications regarding the companies’ latest audits, communications with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), correspondence with any other federal agencies and travel records to or from the United Arab Emirates, Somalia or Kenya.

Comer did not explain how the committee is approaching the investigation but hinted that lawmakers were on guard for possible connections to the fraud schemes in Minnesota.

‘The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social service programs,’ Comer told Mynett in his letter.

Mynett and Omar have come under public scrutiny in recent months as financial reports revealed that the pair’s wealth has grown exponentially since Omar arrived in Congress in 2019.

Those concerns overlap with ongoing federal, state and congressional probes into as much as $9 billion in state funding that Minnesota may have lost to fraud. Through scores of schemes, fraudsters allegedly siphoned funding from government programs like daycare centers and health clinics while returning no benefits, greatly exaggerating their services and pocketing government funding.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the House whip and No. 2 Republican in the chamber, said he expects the public will soon secure answers through the Oversight Committee’s demands for additional details.

‘As President Trump said last month: Time will tell all. I’m confident that Rep. Comer’s investigation into Ilhan Omar’s suspiciously exploding wealth will reveal the truth. The truth sets some people free, but it may send Ilhan packing.’

The committee has asked to see its requested information no later than Feb. 19.

Rep. Omar’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that indirect nuclear talks with the U.S. in Oman were ‘a good start’ and that there was a ‘consensus’ that the negotiations would continue.

‘After a long period without dialogue, our viewpoints were conveyed, and our concerns were expressed. Our interests, the rights of the Iranian people, and all matters that needed to be stated were presented in a very positive atmosphere, and the other side’s views were also heard,’ Araghchi said.

‘It was a good start, but its continuation depends on consultations in our respective capitals and deciding on how to proceed,’ he added.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi met with both Iranian and American officials on Friday, the Foreign Ministry of Oman said on X. The ministry said that al-Busaidi held separate meetings with Araghchi and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

‘The consultations focused on preparing the appropriate conditions for resuming diplomatic and technical negotiations, while emphasizing their importance, in light of the parties’ determination to ensure their success in achieving sustainable security and stability,’ the Foreign Ministry of Oman said.

Oman reportedly put out a public statement acknowledging the talks after journalists with The Associated Press saw Iranian and American officials separately visit the palace, the outlet reported. The AP said it was not immediately clear if talks were done for the day, but noted that the palace was empty after the convoys left.

The Iranian representatives reportedly met with al-Busaidi first, and only after their convoy left the palace did another set of vehicles arrive, one of which had an American flag, according to the AP. The outlet said the SUV flying the American flag stayed at the palace for an hour and a half.

The talks were initially set to take place in Turkey, but were later moved, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who confirmed the change in venue on Wednesday.

‘We thought we had an established forum that had been agreed to in Turkey. It was put together by a number of partners who wanted to attend and be a part of it,’ Rubio said when taking questions from reporters on Wednesday.

‘I saw conflicting reports yesterday from the Iranian side saying that they had not agreed to that. So, that’s still being worked through. At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage in, has always been prepared to engage with Iran.’

Iranian officials also reportedly tried to limit the talks to a bilateral U.S.-Iran format, excluding other Arab and regional countries, according to Axios.

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have been high since Washington bombed Tehran’s nuclear facilities in the summer of 2025. Things escalated further as the U.S. condemned Iran’s treatment of anti-regime protesters, with President Donald Trump threatening to act if government actors used violence against demonstrators.

Trump recently said in an interview with NBC News that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ‘should be very worried,’ though the president acknowledged that the two countries were ‘negotiating.’

When pressed about why he has not followed through on threats to take action if the regime used violence against protesters, Trump said that the U.S. ‘had their back’ and that the ‘country’s a mess right now because of us,’ referring to the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Trump also told NBC News that the U.S. had learned that Iran was attempting to build a new nuclear site in a different part of the country.

The president said that he issued a threat that if Iran were to build a new nuclear facility, the U.S. would ‘do very bad things.’

It is not immediately clear whether there will be more discussions over the course of the weekend or if there are any plans for direct discussions between Iranian and American officials.

The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., swiftly pulled the plug on a meeting with Lebanese Chief of Defense Gen. Rodolphe Haykal after the Lebanese official refused to confirm that the Iranian regime-backed Hezbollah movement is a terrorist organization.

Graham posted to X a blunt message about his frustration with the state of Lebanon in particular and Mideast power politics in general.

 ‘I just had a very brief meeting with the Lebanese Chief of Defense General Rodolphe Haykal. I asked him point blank if he believes Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. He said, ‘No, not in the context of Lebanon.’ With that, I ended the meeting. They are clearly a terrorist organization. Hezbollah has American blood on its hands. Just ask the U.S. Marines,’ 

He continued, ‘They have been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by both Republican and Democrat administrations since 1997 – for good reason. As long as this attitude exists from the Lebanese Armed Forces, I don’t think we have a reliable partner in them. I am tired of the double speak in the Middle East. Too much is at stake.’

Haykal’s refusal to recognize that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization set off security alarm bells among leading experts on the movement.

Matthew Levitt, a leading scholar on Hezbollah from the Washington Institute, told Fox News Digital that, ‘Gen. Haykal’s comment is only going to further concerns that the LAF sees Hezbollah as an actor with which it should deconflict, rather than disarm. The ceasefire agreement is clear that Hezbollah must be disarmed, in both the south and north of the country. In several instances to date, the LAF appears to have shared with Hezbollah targeting intelligence obtained from Israel through the US-led mechanism rather than acting on it.’

He added, ‘At a time when the LAF is seeking international aid, purportedly to disarm Hezbollah, failing to recognize the group as an adversary not only of Israel but of Lebanon as well undermines the case for further funding.’

Fox News Digital sent multiple press queries to Lebanon’s embassy in Washington, D.C.

Sarit Zehavi, a leading Israeli security expert on Hezbollah from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, told Fox News Digital that, ‘I was not surprised by what Haykal said. This is exactly the problem. Hezbollah is not designated as a terrorist organization in Lebanon. The Lebanese army… is not willing to clash with Hezbollah. Hezbollah is not willing to voluntarily disarm. It will not happen as long as there is no clash.’

Zehavi claimed the Lebanese Armed Forces has ‘helped Hezbollah to conceal is military activity and weapons storages in south Lebanon.’

The U.S. brokered a ceasefire in Nov. 2024 between Hezbollah and Israel. In August, Lebanon’s government accepted an American plan to disarm the group by the end of 2025. That deadline does not seem to have been met.

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Barrack, who also serves as envoy to Syria, said at a recent Milken Institute event that Lebanon is a ‘failed state.’ 

Barrack said, ‘The confessional system does not work. A Maronite president, a Sunni prime minister and a Shia speaker; 128 parliamentary seats split equally between Islam and Christians; everything is a deadlock.’

He said, ‘Hezbollah is a foreign terrorist by U.S. standards,’ and ‘it also happens to be a large political party within Lebanon that has blocking rights… This idea of saying you have to disarm Hezbollah … you’re not actually gonna do it militarily.’

Barrack said, ‘The U.S. is saying Hezbollah needs to be disarmed, Hezbollah is a foreign terrorist organization, it cannot exist. My personal opinion is you kill one terrorist, you create 10. That can’t be the answer.’ He urged the Lebanese political leadership to ‘run to Israel and make a deal…there is no other answer.’

Walid Phares, an American academic expert on Hezbollah and Lebanon who has advised U.S. presidential candidates, told Fox News Digital that ‘The disarming of Hezbollah is not just a U.S. and international request but also and most importantly a request by a majority of Lebanese since at least the Cedars Revolution in 2005, when 1.5 million Lebanese Christians, Druze and Sunnis rallied against the Syrian occupation and the Khomeinist militia.’

He added, ‘While the Assad forces withdrew, Hezbollah remained armed. In May 2008, the radical Shia militia conducted an urban military coup against the pro-Western government and seized full power until the Israel-Iran war, known as the 12-day war of 2025. The latter was provoked by Hezbollah siding with Hamas during the Oct. 7 war.’

Fox News Digital reported in November that the Trump administration ramped up pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah.

President Donald Trump took down an inflammatory post from Truth Social that depicted the Obamas as monkeys after a wave of backlash from some of the president’s top allies on Capitol Hill. 

The post first appeared on Thursday night and went under the radar until Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the lone Black member of the Senate GOP, demanded Trump take it down.

The post in question depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys or apes.

‘Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,’ Scott said. ‘The President should remove it.’

His reaction opened a floodgate of responses from other congressional Republicans, who didn’t buy the White House’s initial explanation for the video. 

‘This is totally unacceptable,’ Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said on X. ‘The president should take it down and apologize.’ 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote the post off as a ‘meme’ that was part of a video depicting Trump as the king of the jungle from ‘The Lion King.’ 

‘Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this,’ Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., said in a post on X. ‘The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.’

Still, it took several hours for the post to be removed. 

A Trump advisor told Fox News Digital that ‘the president did not see the video before it was posted.’

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said on X, ‘This content was rightfully removed, should have never been posted to begin with, and is not who we are as a nation.’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., similarly called on Trump to take the post down. 

‘Racist. Vile. Abhorrent. This is dangerous and degrades our country — where are Senate Republicans? The President must immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man,’ Schumer said on X. 

The post has since been removed, and a Trump advisor told Fox News Digital that ‘the president did not see the video before it was posted.’

Scott and Trump have shared a warm relationship since he ran and ultimately dropped out of the Republican presidential race last year. 

He now chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm tasked with keeping Republicans’ thin majority in the upper chamber and expanding it during the 2026 midterm cycle. 

Scott has rarely bucked Trump, positioning himself as a top ally to the president — he was on the short list of possible vice presidential picks before Trump ultimately tapped then Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio. 

However, he has recently broken with the president on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Scott, who also chairs the Senate Banking Committee, said during an interview with Fox Business earlier this week that he didn’t believe Powell had committed a crime during his testimony to the committee last year.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.