ANSD : Pompeo set for talks this week in Beirut on oil, aid, Hezbollah

SAT 23 - 11 - 2024

Date: Mar 11, 2019
Source: The Daily Star

Pompeo set for talks this week in Beirut on oil, aid, Hezbollah

_{Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star}
BEIRUT: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to visit Beirut this week for talks with Lebanese leaders expected to focus on bilateral relations, U.S. military aid to the Lebanese Army, and Hezbollah’s “growing role” in internal Lebanese politics, political sources said Sunday. Pompeo’s visit to Beirut, to take place either on March 14 or 15, would be part of a regional tour that would also take him to Israel and Kuwait.

During his quick visit, the top U.S. diplomat will meet separately with President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, an official source said.

The source said the marine border dispute between Lebanon and Israel would also figure high in Pompeo’s talks with Lebanese officials.

MTV said in its news bulletin Sunday night Pompeo was carrying with him “a list of conditions” that Lebanon must meet in order to curb Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon.

Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield, who visited Beirut last week to prepare for Pompeo’s trip, last year unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate a deal on the disputed maritime border between Lebanon and Israel, in light of Lebanon’s discovery of potential offshore oil and gas reserves and fears that Israel would drill in these waters.

As a result of tough sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Hezbollah as well as on its main backer Iran, in an attempt to dry up the group’s financial sources, party leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah called last Friday for donations after acknowledging the party was facing financial difficulties due to Western sanctions. The U.S. and Gulf states brand Hezbollah a “terrorist organization.” During his visit to Beirut last week, Satterfield warned in meetings with senior Lebanese officials Lebanon against toeing pro-Iran policies by urging the new government to make “national choices,” not choices imposed by “external parties,” in a clear reference to Tehran’s influence in the country through Hezbollah.

Contrary to custom, Satterfield did not meet with Aoun, fueling speculation that Washington might have wanted to express its disapproval of the president’s political stances, viewed by many as favoring Hezbollah, and especially his support for normalizing ties with the Syrian regime.

Satterfield also did not meet with Berri, who was reported over the weekend to have said he would have rejected a meeting with the U.S. official had he requested it. Berri recalled a stormy meeting with Satterfield last year focusing on the marine border dispute between Lebanon and Israel.

In Berri’s view, Satterfield did not play the role of a mediator in the dispute but adopted Israel’s position and sought to exert pressure on Lebanon to accept an American proposal for a solution to the border crisis that would eventually serve the Jewish state’s interest.

Pompeo’s visit also comes a few weeks after U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Richard warned Lebanon of Hezbollah’s “growing role” in the new Cabinet, saying this threatened the country’s stability.

Despite growing U.S. concerns over Hezbollah’s role in Lebanese politics, the U.S. continues to support the Lebanese Army.

Since 2005, the U.S. has given the Army over $2 billion. This year, the country is expected the give the Army more than $350 million in military aid.

Pompeo’s visit to Beirut comes less than two weeks before Aoun’s planned two-day trip to Russia. While in Moscow on March 25-26, his first since his election as president in 2016, Aoun will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on bilateral relations, the Syrian refugee crisis and the stalled Russian initiative aiming to secure the return of displaced Syrians in Lebanon to their country, the official source said.

The source added that the offshore oil and gas issue would be discussed during the meeting. Russian company Novatek is part of a consortium that includes France’s Total and Italy’s Eni and is expected to begin exploring Lebanon’s potential offshore oil and gas reserves later this year.

Meanwhile, the issue of fighting corruption continued to reverberate across the country, dominating the political scene over the weekend.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian, the head of Lebanon’s highest Sunni religious authority, threw his weight behind former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora for the second time in less than a week, rejecting corruption accusations again him.

“The indirect accusations against [former] Premier Fouad Siniora are fabrications, a premature verdict and an act of injustice,” a statement issued Saturday after a meeting of the Higher Islamic Council chaired by Derian at Dar al-Fatwa, the seat of the Sunni mufti, said.

The statement called for a “relevant and honest judiciary” to do its job in investigating corruption charges made by politicians and lawmakers over the past few weeks. The statement called for fighting corruption within a legal framework and for holding corrupt people accountable on the basis of official documents that do not stem from “political spitefulness.”

Derian had said Siniora, whose government had been accused of illegally spending $11 billion in extrabudgetary expenditures during his tenure from 2005 to 2009, was a “red line.”

Hezbollah has launched a self-proclaimed campaign against corruption rampant in public administrations and ministries.

Nasrallah said the campaign would continue to the end.

Siniora has denied the $11 billion in extrabudgetary spending during his tenure was illegal, lashing out at Hezbollah for reviving the controversy.

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