A senior Trump administration official denounced the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah this week, calling the movement a “cancer” which must be removed from Lebanon.

In an interview with the Saudi Al Arabiya outlet on Monday, President Donald Trump’s Deputy Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Morgan Ortagus cited the terms of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire reached last November, under which Hezbollah must disarm and remain north of the Litani River – away from the Israeli frontier.

Ortagus went on to blame the Shi’ite group for drawing Lebanon into a war which had initially been limited to Israel and the Gaza Strip.