Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) told reporters on Monday that Lebanese and Israeli leaders both expressed to him strong interest in the Michigan Senate race, where pro-Israel Republican Mike Rogers faces Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, while he was on a trip to the Middle East last week.

Lankford’s visit to the region included meetings with President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana in Israel.

Berri, he said, made an offhand comment that there was an “extension of [his] party in Michigan that he just initiated.” Berri leads the Amal Movement, a Shia political faction allied with Hezbollah. Michigan hosts one of the largest Lebanese diaspora populations in the United States.

Lankford said that the comment came during a discussion on political dynamics in Lebanon, where Berri was laying out differences between the Amal Movement and Hezbollah, and Berri did not elaborate further. “But quite frankly, myself and my team, when we walked out, we all looked at each other and said, ‘Did I hear that correctly?’” Lankford recounted.

He said that his team agreed that they had heard the same thing.

In Israel, he said that leaders were closely monitoring the midterms, seeing them as having direct impacts on Israel and peace in the Middle East, but had special interest in the Michigan race. 

“At the end of the meeting, they would quietly say to me, ‘Tell me what’s going to happen in the Michigan Senate race.’ And it was very interesting that several Israeli leaders were attentively watching that particular Senate race,” Lankford said.

The Oklahoma senator said that Israeli leaders are focused on long-term security relations and maintaining Israel’s relationship with the United States.

“There is a sense that if America pulls away from that long-term relationship with Israel, it hurts both Israeli security and American security [and] empowers Iran,” Lankford said. “That partnership helps everyone in the region and brings stability long term to the region. They’re keenly aware of that.”

Lankford said all three Lebanese leaders with whom Lankford met reaffirmed the need for centralized state power in the Lebanese Armed Forces and police force, and said that they are working toward the “long-term goal” of disarmament of Hezbollah.

“The Lebanese leaders were very clear that they are taking specific actions towards disarmament of Hezbollah as well in displacing them as the military that they are in Lebanon,” he said. Lankford explained that Aoun was able to provide specific examples of locations and operations — specific homes, bunkers and weapons caches — where Lebanese forces have moved in and seized weapons.

“They are actively working through this, but trying to do it at a pace and at a method that they can actually try to get it done without Lebanon going back into civil war, which wouldn’t help anyone in the region — most certainly not the Lebanese people,” Lankford said.

Some Lebanese officials and even certain U.S. government envoys have offered excuses for why forcible disarmament of Hezbollah is not practical or even possible.

But Lankford said that there is a long way to go in the “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon where the Israeli military has begun turning over control to the LAF, including determining what third party will verify Hezbollah’s disarmament and how that process will work. Lankford said that the parties are working to identify a third-country willing to carry out verification.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is set to end its mission at the end of the year.

Asked about the path forward beyond UNIFIL and the potential third-party verification force, Lankford said that it’s clear to him that UNIFIL was not fulfilling its designated mission, given Hezbollah’s ability to arm and build tunnels under the body’s supposed supervision. He said UNIFIL equipment and bases should be transferred to the LAF.

Within Lebanon, he said that opinions were split on whether UNIFIL should leave or remain, but said that Israeli officials were unanimous UNIFIL had failed and should be removed.

He also described the direct military-to-military dialogue between Israel and Lebanon, being facilitated by the U.S., as an “optimistic” step amid broader talks toward a settled border, Hezbollah’s disarmament and stability inside Lebanon. But he said that there was no discussion of the potential for Israeli-Lebanese normalization.

“At this point in time, there’s a lot of finger-pointing, but at least they’re talking to each other while they’re finger-pointing,” Lankford said.

Israeli leaders, he added, emphasized that they have no territorial ambitions inside Lebanon in the long term. 

He highlighted the significant ways that Israeli ground operations inside Lebanon have changed the landscape, including finding weapons caches and identifying and destroying sophisticated tunnel systems. He said Israeli officials have also been pressing the Lebanese government and UNIFIL on how such tunnels were constructed without any intervention.

Lankford said he left the region ahead of the deadly Houthi attack on a Saudi airport over the weekend, but had broad conversations with Israeli leaders about confronting the threat from the Houthis and stabilizing Yemen — but not specifically about Israeli support for Riyadh.

Lankford, along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), introduced legislation to provide expanded security and reconstruction funding for the LAF and Lebanon, but acknowledged that the bill is not likely to pass this year. He said that supporters are looking toward a longer-term horizon for the effort.