Matthew Cassel, Electronic Lebanon, 13 February 2008
""We don't want a confrontation. But if we are dragged into one, we will not stay [with our] hands tied," warned Parliamentary Majority Leader Sa'ad Hariri during a speech to supporters and journalists in Tripoli on Saturday night. His words to Hizballah and the Lebanese opposition echoed those of top US diplomat to the Middle East David Welch in a letter to Arab League chief Amr Mousa in which he warned that the US would not sit by with its "hands tied" if the current political crises continues.The US, along with its close ally and Lebanon's hostile neighbor, Israel, have long wanted to see the disarmament of the resistance and now political movement Hizballah. This is especially so after Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and Israel's failure to militarily defeat the group during the July 2006 war, both widely viewed as Hizballah victories......
The fact that US President George W. Bush is nearing the end of his second and final term in office could explain the hastening of this goal. Since the war in Iraq began in 2003 the neocons in the Bush administration have been anxious to go to war with Iran. Over that time top Israeli officials have also encouraged the US to take military action against the Islamic Republic. A conflict in Lebanon, they hope, would weaken Iran's close ally Hizballah, and could even spill over and open the path for a military strike against Iran. What's more, Israel was emboldened by the international community's tacit consent towards its strike on Syria last summer, as demonstrated by the lack of outcry over this blatant violation of Syria's sovereignty......."
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