U.S. Diplomat Says Lebanese Must Choose Own Leaders on Time

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Sate for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson has urged the Lebanese to choose their leaders on time and away from foreign interference.

“The Lebanese can, should, and must choose their own leaders, and upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections are opportunities to do so,” Patterson said in a speech in Washington on Monday.

“We urge that they go forward in accordance with the Lebanese constitution, on time, and free from foreign interference,” she said during a ceremony held on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of the Cedar Revolution.

Patterson lauded “the spirit of national pride and independence that brought hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to the streets of Beirut” in the aftermath of the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri in Feb. 2005.

“The justifiable Lebanese demand for an end to an era of Syrian military occupation and political violence in the country also foreshadowed demands for change and accountability that we see today elsewhere across the region,” she said.

But Patterson lamented that “some of the shadows of 2005 have returned.”

She said Hizbullah members have crossed from Lebanon to fight in the Syrian civil war on behalf of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad despite the agreement of all the Lebanese parties in the Baabda Declaration to keep Lebanon at a distance from the region's crises.

The diplomat called on all the Lebanese parties to respect the principles laid out in the Baabda Declaration, the Taef Accord, and U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701.

“We are working with Lebanon’s international friends, particularly the International Support Group, to provide practical support that buttresses the Lebanese people’s own calls for an end to intervention in foreign conflicts, an end to the cycle of violence,” Patterson said.

G.K.

H.K.