Washington Dismisses Hizbullah Criticism for USS Cole Deployment

 

United States on Friday shrugged off Hizbullah”s criticisms of the deployment of a U.S. warship to waters off Lebanon and insisted the show of force meant to promote stability.

 

“On Hizbullah”s concerns, I would express some of our own concerns with Hezbollah”s actions. So I”ll just leave it at that,” White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters.

 

Johndroe sidestepped questions about comments from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, who said Friday that his government did not ask Washington to send the USS Cole guided-missile destroyer to the area.

 

“We have regular consultations with Prime Minister Saniora and his government, as well as our allies, both in the immediate region, as well as in Europe on the situation in Lebanon,” said the spokesman.

 

“There”s constant communication at various levels. But let”s be clear: The purpose of the U.S. Navy ships in the eastern Mediterranean is a show of support for regional stability,” amid Lebanon”s political crisis, he emphasized.

 

“I know we share with Prime Minister Saniora a desire for the situation in Lebanon to be resolved, and resolved by the Lebanese people,” said Johndroe.

 

“We did not ask anyone to send warships,” Saniora said in a speech during a meeting with Arab ambassadors that was broadcast live on television, adding that no U.S. warship was in “Lebanese waters.”

 

Before Friday”s speech Saniora also summoned the U.S. charge d”affaires to ask her for “clarifications” about the dispatch of the USS Cole, a government source told AFP.

 

Lebanon has been without a president since last November amid political feuding between the Western-backed ruling parliamentary majority and the opposition, backed by Syria and Iran.