Rex Tillerson's recent remarks about Hezbollah are deeply disturbing

This is close to just plain nuts. It runs counter to any attempt to present a unified face of anti-Iran policy on the part of the current administration:

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in remarks during a trip through the Middle East this week, said the United States recognizes Hezbollah is part of the political process in Lebanon as global leaders gather to discuss the Middle Eastern country's future.

Despite the terrorist group's unhelpful influence, Tillerson said "we also have to acknowledge the reality that they also are part of the political process in Lebanon."

Tillerson's remarks raised eyebrows in Washington, D.C., where some foreign policy officials questioned how the United States would hold diplomatic discussions with Hezbollah as the Trump administration also works to dismantle the group and crush its financial networks.

I realize that any kind of broad view of how Lebanon fits into the fabric of the overall world stage must take into consideration the reverberations from its convulsive and multilayered 1975 - 1990 civil war. It is not the nation it was prior to that, with broad boulevards, fashionable social scene, bustling banking and tourism industries in its major cities, and an overall generally acceptable coexistence between its Druze, Maronite Christian, Roman Catholic, Shiite and Sunni Muslim population segments.

But to resign the US to the forcible insinuation of Hezbollah into anything that was left of that constellation of stability just doesn't fit with an overarching stance of regarding Iran as a mortal enemy. Hezbollah is Iran's proxy, and its influence in Lebanon is a key component of its Shiite crescent aims.

And it's reassuring that others at the cabinet level in the current US administration don't see it quite this way:

"Hezbollah is a terrorist organization responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans, "Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said in a statement earlier this month announcing tough new sanctions on Hezbollah.

"It is also Iran's primary proxy used to undermine legitimate Arab governments across the Middle East. The administration is determined to expose and disrupt Hezbollah's networks, including those across the Middle East and West Africa, used to fund their illicit operations," Mnuchin said. "The Treasury Department will continue to sever Hezbollah from the international financial system, and we will be relentless in identifying, exposing, and dismantling Hezbollah's financial support networks globally."

Thank you, Secretary Mnuchin.

A Mideast policy wonk says it's high time for the administration to come to a coherent, consistent stance:

 Asked about the State Department's clarification, an Iran policy expert who has worked closely with the Trump administration on the issue said it shows signs that the administration is divided about how to approach the problem.

"The sad truth is the Trump administration doesn't have a coherent policy on Lebanon. The president knows what he wants, which is to aggressively roll Iran back. There are parts of the administration where people seem committed to carrying out his policy, like Treasury's sanctions division, which has been trying to sanction Hezbollah into the stone age," according to the expert.

"But then you've got the State Department, which seems committed to maintaining a role for Hezbollah, and therefore Iran, in Lebanon. It's from top to bottom. Even our ambassador in Beirut is an Obama holdover who sends along manufactured cables and papers about how Hezbollah is part of Lebanon's political process. They're barely even trying to hide it."

This needs to be straightened out fast.