The package allots $40 million to the Internal Security Forces and $190 million to the Lebanese Armed Forces, a Lebanese source acquainted with the decision told Reuters.
According to Democratic US congressional staffers, the money was made available only before Washington's fiscal year ended on September 30.
According to one assistant, "that's really, really significant for a small country like Lebanon."
The help was authorized in the midst of Trump's larger cuts to foreign aid programs, which reflected his administration's declared goal of allocating taxpayer funds with "America First" in mind.
According to an email from a State Department official, US assistance helps Lebanese troops "as they work to assert Lebanese sovereignty across the country and fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, the only viable framework for a durable security arrangement for both Lebanese and Israelis."
Since its disastrous battle with Israel, Hezbollah has resisted calls to disarm, but pressure to do so is growing from competing Lebanese forces as well as from Washington.
On August 5, President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam gave the US backed army instructions to create a strategy that would guarantee that security forces would control all weapons in the nation by the end of the year.
After the October 7 attack in southern Israel that left almost 1,200 people dead and 251 hostage to Gaza, Hezbollah launched missiles at northern Israel in support of Hamas, sparking an outbreak of violence between Israel and the group.
Adopted in August 2006, the resolution put an end to the preceding bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
In the meantime, Hezbollah has been badly weakened by a more recent fight between Israel and Lebanon that started a year ago and has devastated a significant portion of Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah were engaged in a full scale conflict by September 2024, which lasted into November.
