U.S. Should Support Lebanese Army to Enable It of Defending Lebanon
President Michel Suleiman on Tuesday said that Washington has to support the Lebanese Army in order to enable it of defending its territories against any enemy.
Suleiman was delivering a speech before a delegation from the Lebanese community in the U.S.
"The practice of democracy in Lebanon is robust," said the president in his speech.
Suleiman stressed that Lebanon”s strength lies in the unity of its army and its capability to protect its land and face any threat to its stability.
"We reiterated support for the Arab peace initiative endorsed in Beirut, and we informed the U.S. administration about Lebanon”s rejection to the naturalization of Palestinians on its land," added the president.
Suleiman told the Lebanese community members that Lebanon depends on them, promising to engage them in the country”s national decisions through the urgent adoption of a law allowing the immigrants to vote in the parliamentary elections.
Earlier, Suleiman held a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama at the Oval Office. The two leaders reportedly agreed on a number of key commitments, and disagreed on others, particularly over security and Hizbullah arms.
Obama on Monday said a U.N. resolution calling on Hizbullah to disarm must be enforced.
Speaking to reporters, Obama said that while there has been progress made in enforcing the resolution, that progress is incomplete. Hizbullah has continued to defy the U.N. resolution that ended its 2006 war with Israel and called on the group to disarm.
Obama said he is particularly concerned about "the extensive arms that are smuggled into Lebanon that potentially serve as a threat to Israel."
Hizbullah, which the U.S. lists as a terror group, has said it has thousands of rockets and missiles, some of which can reach deep into Israel.
Obama said the U.S. and Lebanon may not always agree on issues involving Israel, but both nations share "a commitment to resolve these issues through dialogue and negotiations, as opposed to through violence."
"And that is consistent with the democratic traditions of Lebanon. That”s consistent with what we believe is in the interests of both Lebanon as well as the other countries in the region," he added.
"And we are going to continue to be promoting those processes that bring parties together, even though there are going to be some strong disagreements with respect to what the terms, for example, of a final peace between Israel and the Palestinians may be. And I”m confident that we can arrive at those — such an agreement as long as all the parties are entering into it in good faith," Obama concluded.
Suleiman, for his part, called on the United States to provide Lebanon military support.
He also urged Washington to put pressure on Israel to implement U.N. resolution 1701 and demand that it stop threatening Lebanon.
"We discussed the Israeli threats against Lebanon that are taking place and that place obstacles to the economic growth of the country," Suleiman said, calling on Obama and the United States to "exert further pressure on Israel to implement Resolution 1701 and to withdraw from Israeli occupied — Lebanese occupied territories namely from the village of Ghajar, Kfar Shouba, and the Shabaa Farms."
Suleiman said talks also touched on bilateral relations between the two countries.
"We believe we have many common denominators with the United States. The first one are Americans of Lebanese descent which play a great role in the United States, and also the shared values we have with the United States and its people, namely the value of democracy, respect of human rights, public freedom, rejection of extremism and fundamentalism, and confronting terrorism," Suleiman said.
"And Lebanon has paid a very heavy price to preserve these values — a heavy price because of the cost of its soul of its people, its infrastructure, and also it had a heavy economical price, especially regards this part of the Lebanese views we”re obliged to indicate," he went on to say.
Suleiman said Lebanon has asked for U.S. support on various levels, mainly military "because a strong army and strong armed forces could defend Lebanon against hostility of the enemy. Also it could allow the country to confront terrorism which poses dangers not only on Lebanon but on humanity as a whole.
The second level, according to the Lebanese president, is economic "in order to promote new, more economic growth and social justice, because injustice is sometimes taken as a pretext by terrorist and fundamentalist organizations to recruit people and invite them to terrorism."
"We also asked for the political support of the United States to take a political position to support Lebanon and to support a peaceful solution for the Middle East crisis.
Suleiman also reiterated Lebanon”s insistence on the rights of return for Palestinians.