LEBANON: U.S. warship draws Moscow’s ire
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The crisis in Lebanon continues to draw world powers into its vortex, this time Russia.
A U.S. show of force off the Lebanese coast has not only jolted U.S. foes in the region, Syria and Iran, but apparently also Moscow.
On Monday, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin criticized the U.S. for deploying warships in the eastern Mediterranean at a closed Security Council meeting. He said that the presence of the ships was simply not helping solve the political crisis in the small nation; quite the opposite actually, according to his comments in the Associated Press:
‘We pointed out the fact that basically all Lebanese political forces expressed their concern about that, including the government of Prime Minister (Fuad) Saniora, and we have said that such acts were bringing up some unwanted historical analogies. So we did not see it as a constructive contribution to the situation in Lebanon.’
The whole controversy started about two weeks ago when Washington decided to dispatch the U.S.S. Cole, a guided-missile destroyer, to international waters off Lebanon’s coast. This military presence was meant, U.S. officials said then, to boost stability in the region and rebuke the Syrians for ‘blocking the democratic process in Lebanon.’
Instead, the news refueled tensions between the U.S.-backed Lebanese government and Syria’s ally, Hezbollah. The Shiite militant group slammed the deployment as a ‘threat’ to regional stability.
Warships or not, Lebanon’s political feud has been going on for months now. The country failed to elect a president for the 16th time on Tuesday. A new (tentative!) date was set on March 25 to fill the top post, which has been vacant since Nov. 23.
Analysts have speculated that the latest U.S. move is a sign of frustration after Washington’s repeated failure to get its allies in control of the situation.
This week again, Lebanese politicians — the same ones who accuse their enemies of being dupes of Syria and Iran — continued to seek the support of the U.S. government. Samir Geagea, a senior anti-Syrian politician and a former warlord, is currently making a high-profile visit to Washington. He is scheduled to meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Is he just there to emulate other Lebanese politicians, or is there something new in the air?
Meanwhile, recent media reports said that U.S.S. Cole, which was targeted by Al Qaeda in 2000, was replaced by the cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the destroyer U.S.S. Ross.
— Raed Rafei in Beirut