US Retorts to Hezbollah: We Have Concerns About You

Al-Manar

"29/02/2008 The United States on Friday criticized Hezbollah's criticisms of the deployment of the US warship USS Cole to waters off Lebanon and insisted the show of force meant to promote stability and pointed out US concerns regarding Hezbollah. "On Hezbollah'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.
"This decision proves that it's the United States which is interfering in Lebanese affairs, and that this interference has taken on a military slant," Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan said.

Johndroe sidestepped questions about comments from the head of the unconstitutional government Fouad Saniora, who said Friday that his Western-backed 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 US 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, adding that no US warship was in "Lebanese waters.""