Issa says negotiations with govt and war on Hezbollah are two separate things
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa said Wednesday that Israel differentiates between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah.
"The negotiations with the Lebanese government and the war on Hezbollah are two separate things to Israel," Issa told reporters in a press conference after a meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri and the American Task Force for Lebanon.
Issa answered a reporter that Hezbollah must fulfill its duties and that the group knows what these duties are, and said that the U.S. support to the Lebanese Army has never stopped.
Issa, who had previously stated that he is working on rescheduling a visit of Army chief Rodolphe Haykal to Washington, said the visit has not been organized yet but that he thinks it will happen.
"I think it will happen because the army chief has a message to the Americans and its better that he delivers it himself," Issa said.
Haykal was scheduled to visit Washington last month but the trip was called off after U.S. political and military officials cancelled their meetings with him just hours before he was scheduled to depart.
Those who cancelled included influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who in a statement on X slammed what he said was Haykal's "weak almost non-existent effort to disarm Hezbollah".
Graham also criticized an army statement that referred to Israel as the "enemy" -- a standard term even in official discourse in Lebanon, which has been technically at war with Israel since 1948.
Source: Naharnet
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