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BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said his Western-backed government did not ask Washington to send a US warship to the waters off Lebanon, which is embroiled in a deep political crisis.
USS Cole on revenge mission?
“We did not ask anyone to send warships,” Siniora said in a speech during a meeting with Arab ambassadors that was broadcast live on television, adding that no US warship was in “Lebanese waters.”
“The Lebanese navy and UNIFIL naval forces, whuch are helping Lebanon secure its maritime borders, are the only ones” in Lebanese territorial waters, Siniora said in reference to United Nations peacekeepers.
PM SINIORA SUMMONED U.S. CHARGE D’AFFAIRES
Before his speech Siniora also summoned the US charge d’affaires to ask her for “clarifications” about the dispatch of the USS Cole, a government source told AFP. “The prime minister summoned Mrs Michele Sison to ask her to clarify the presence of the USS Cole” in the Mediterranean.
“Mrs Sison assured him that the warship was in international territorial waters and had been dispatched to guarantee regional stability.”
Washington said it had sent the USS Cole guided-missile destroyer to waters off Lebanon and that the vessel was already in the eastern Mediterranean. The deployment was “a show of support for regional stability” because of “concern about the situation in Lebanon,” a US official said on condition of anonymity, declining to say that the show of force was aimed at Syria or Iran.
More to follow …
(TimesOnline) – Lebanon’s militant Shia Hezbollah today accused the United States of escalating tensions in the Middle East by dispatching warships to patrol the Lebanese coastline.
“We are facing an American threat against Lebanon,” said Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah MP. “It is clear this threat and intimidation will not affect us.”
His comments came a day after US officials confirmed that the USS Cole , a guided missile destroyer, has been deployed to the eastern Mediterranean as a show of support for the troubled Western-backed Lebanese Government.
The USS Cole is accompanied by two refuelling ships. But it could soon be joined by the US Navy’s Nassau battle group, consisting of six ships including amphibious troop carriers, which is scheduled to sail to the eastern Mediterranean soon.
“This is an area that is important to us, the eastern Med,” said Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said the IDF must reoccupy part of the Gaza Strip for an unlimited time and overthrow the Hamas government.
“The State of Israel must make a strategic decision to order the IDF to prepare quickly to topple the Hamas terror regime and take over all the areas from which rockets are fired on Israel,” MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Kadima) told Israel Radio. He said the IDF should prepare to remain in those areas for years.
MK Gideon Sa’ar (Likud) said his party would back an invasion of Gaza, though he fell short of advocating reoccupation. “There is no doubt that the security response needs to include a ground component,” said Sa’ar. He said the “takeover of territory in the northern Strip” from which the Palestinians launch rockets at Israel would reduce the barrages from Gaza.
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai went as far as threatening a “shoah,” the Hebrew word for holocaust or disaster. The word is generally used to refer to the Nazi Holocaust, but a spokesman for Vilnai said the deputy defense minister used the word in the sense of “disaster,” saying “he did not mean to make any allusion to the genocide.”
Four boys killed while playing football, the child victims of Israel’s revenge on Gaza
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
