Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and former American Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman said that he was “disturbed” to see “decent official figures” welcoming Kuntar and he criticized March 14 for not standing their ground against Hizballah. I agree with the former but not entirely with the latter.
For some reason, the United States policy towards Lebanon and the Middle East in general is a flip flop between double standard and a poor understanding of the local and regional factors.
For a long time, Walid Jumblatt and other leaders counted on the US support for Lebanon. To be fair, the US did help Lebanon, but it was not ready to back it up as March 14 expected. Of course Hizballah and allies took advantage of it. In May, Hizballah invaded parts of Beirut that were not under its control already. It would be foolish for Hizballah to repeat its Beirut adventure but it did prove the world that it can get away with almost everything.
Next time Feltman opens his mouth to criticize March 14 [and they have done lots of mistakes] he should also explain why the United States failed to support the efforts of those who are sick and tired of having their country dragged into conflicts and wars because of the holy resistance.Farid Makari, deputy Speaker said it well, that the goal of March 8 is to have a Hizballah state “in parallel to, or even as competing against, the Lebanese state.”
Playing the blame game is not helping anyone. The idea is to find solutions to these problems.
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