Foreign Interference? What Foreign Interference?

Washington Rejects Arab Initiative over Lebanon

Al-Manar

"16/02/2008 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's representative for Iraq David Satterfield announced that his country does not back an Arab initiative to solve the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon. Speaking to Arab journalists in Paris, Satterfield ridiculed the initiative sarcastically saying: "What is the Arab initiative?" He added that "the US initiative however calls for free elections and opposes Syrian and Lebanese opposition demands." Further interfering in Lebanese affairs, the senior US official said the opposition should not be given concessions.

Satterfield who was US Ambassador to Lebanon, lashed out at Syria accusing it of being "directly responsible for the political crisis in Lebanon and the accompanying violence." "I would describe the situation as one of continuing blockage and the continued eruption of violence in Lebanon ... We regard Syria as directly responsible for this situation," he said. Satterfield had talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy's foreign affairs advisor Jean-David Levitte and officials from the French foreign ministry."