New US ambassador to Beirut, Vincent Battle, accused Lebanon on Tuesday of continuing to shelter “terrorist organizations.”
According to the Daily Star newspaper, the envoy’s accusations were a blow to efforts to shake off the country’s civil war image as a haven for militant extremists.
Battle’s remark, the first on the issue since he assumed his post last week, left Lebanon puzzled as to its place in the international coalition to combat terrorism which the United States has been trying to create since last week’s disastrous spate of terror in New York and Washington, said the paper.
It also raised concerns about opening old sores that could strain relations with Washington.
Battle said that a “while back” Lebanon and Syria were handed lists of organizations and individuals implicated in “terrorist” attacks. He made no demand for arrests or extradition, and did not mention any organization by name.
But the US State Department’s blacklist is known to include the Shiite movement of Hizbollah, among other groups, most of which have ceased to exist since the end of the war in 1990.
Battle, meanwhile, delivered to the Lebanese foreign ministry Washington’s conditions for joining an international coalition.
High on the list are demands for the arrest and prosecution of those identified by Washington as “terrorists” and the extradition of those wanted for trial in the United States – Albawaba.com
