"... Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey D. Feltman recently said that the top contenders for prime minister should consider accepting other positions to speed up the process. But Maliki said it was not America's place to get involved.
"These are not foreign recipes," Maliki said. "Why should we go to Plan B? The arena is open to anyone who can manage it. The political process is going along, we shall go to Parliament and whoever has the largest bloc will form the government." He warned that U.S. pressure could be detrimental.
and, on Hariri
"He did not accuse the Syrians but he did acknowledge that Hezbollah does have arms," said Lugar. "When asked ‘Why don't you disarm them?' he responded, ‘That would lead to civil war.'" Lawmakers, many of whom have a personal affinity for Hariri and travel to Beirut often, decided not to press the issue.
"We did not get into the specific armaments that Syria has given Hezbollah," Lugar said. "It didn't happen to arise in this conversation."........ lawmakers didn't ask Hariri to do anything specific to advance that objective, Kerry said. "I think he's been an enormously helpful partner with respect to the issues in the region."
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