Kerry Expresses Staunch Support to Lebanon in War Against Terrorism
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry vehemently stressed on Saturday that his country stands by Lebanon in its war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Media reports said that Kerry lauded in a letter sent to Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil the endeavors undertaken by the Lebanese state in its war against terrorism.
“The U.S. stands by Lebanon in its war against ISIL along its border,” Kerry reportedly told Bassil, pointing out that his country will continue to cooperate with the state and to support its army.
The Lebanese army has been engaged in battles against jihadists from the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front after militants attacked Lebanese security forces in the northeastern border town of Arsal, which lies on the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon.
The jihadists withdrew into the mountains around Arsal after a ceasefire, but took with them several soldiers and policemen as hostages.
Three of them have since been executed, contributing to rising anxiety in Lebanon over the encroachment of jihadists and spillover from the more than three-year-old war in Syria.
The U.S. diplomat expressed Washington's commitment to pursuit and punish the terrorist
Kerry also explained in his letter his country's course of action to form a coalition against IS and similar groups.
Ten Arab states, including heavyweight Saudi Arabia, agreed in Jeddah to rally behind Washington in the fight against Islamic State jihadists, as it seeks to build an international coalition.
Military chiefs from the 21 countries already committed to the U.S.-led coalition are to meet in Washington next week to discuss strategy, Pentagon officials said.
The official acknowledged the fears expressed by Bassil over dangers imposed by ISIL and terrorist organizations on Christians and other minorities in the orient, voicing President Barack Obama's designation not to allow these components to be uprooted from their homeland.
The latest developments in Iraq where hundreds of thousands of Christians and Yazidis have been displaced, aggravated fears that the the Christian community in Lebanon would face the same fate.
Christian areas, like other Lebanese regions host hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees most of whom live in popular residential areas that have been raided lately by security forces in search of wanted individuals.
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