The Obama administration has made it clear to the Lebanese government that it should do everything in its power to avoid another border skirmish with Israel and be careful about cozying up to Iran ........
the administration delivered a message to the Lebanese government via Frederic Hof, senior advisor to Special Envoy George Mitchell,... "He noted that the incident could and should have been avoided and placed stress on the important U.S.-Lebanon bilateral defense relationship," ... Hof also warned that if something like this were to happen again, he's not sure we could prevent [the elimination of the aid] from happening," the official said.
Perhaps most importantly, Hof communicated to senior Lebanese officials that their actions going forward, such as taking assistance from Iran, would have consequences for U.S.-Lebanon military cooperation....
It's not clear that the Lebanese government or the LAF got the message. Lebanese Defense Minister Elias al-Murr shot back at Congress defiantly on August 11....(but sent a message to the Americans saying: "Don't mind the bravado. Are we still friends?")
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Stop Elias' Murr's raffle tickets sale: Lebanon's leaders will heed US 'warnings'...
The Cable:
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The issue is not really in the hands of E. Murr or any of the defunct old majority. A new majority is ready to be in place and submitting to US blackmail is not an option. Hence, again, we may be in for a repeat of the fifties when Egypt had to go elsewhere for its arms. The rest is history!
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