US Policy toward Lebanon Will Not Change
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch said that the measures that Lebanon has taken with the help of Washington and the international community had made it a stronger, more sovereign and secure state than it had been immediately after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
In an interview with An-Nahar on Saturday, he said, however, that “the situation in Lebanon remains fragile and requires constant attention.”
He stressed that Washington’s policy towards Lebanon during the Bush administration would be continued by President-elect Barack Obama’s new administration.
“I don’t see any possibility for the coming administration to change this policy,” Welch said.
On Lebanese-Syrian relations, he said “that equal relations between the two countries should prevail and be practiced through embassies.”
He called for building “fruitful economical relations and facilitating the movement of travelers and commodities between the two countries, as any other neighboring countries.”
He reassured the Lebanese that “there must be no fear of any possible Syrian return to Lebanon.”
On the 2009 parliamentary elections in Lebanon, Welch called for non-governmental and international organizations to participate in its monitoring.
“Washington will not support any party against the other. We support Lebanon and the Lebanese state institution. If this election was fair and good it would convey a positive message to the whole region,” he said.
The US official expressed relief about the upcoming commencement of the Special Tribunal of Lebanon.
He said that the hardest challenge that faced Lebanon in the last decades was putting an end to the impunity that many of those responsible for carrying out political assassinations had enjoyed in the past.
On Washington’s stance regarding the Russian military assistance to Lebanon and granting it 10 MIG-29 fighter jets, Welch said that “Lebanon would evaluate these proposes by itself. We are also discussing with military and civil Lebanese officials the details in our program to modernize the army and security forces in Lebanon.”
However, and from a strictly personal view, Welch said that “the MIG is not the best weapon to fulfill Lebanon’s security needs because handling this kind of fighter jets is complicated and its maintenance is hard. But this is not my decision. It is their [the Lebanese government’s] decision.”