US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said that a new Lebanese government should not legitimize any “terrorist organizations,” in an implicit reference to the Washington-blacklisted Hezbollah.
“We admire the efforts to put together a government, but we are very clear that government needs to not provide an opportunity for legitimization of any terrorist organization or violence within Lebanon,” Kerry said.
“We are very clear that that the government needs to not provide an opportunity for legitimization of any terrorist organization or violence within Lebanon,” Kerry said in remarks to the press prior to his meeting with caretaker Premier Najib Miqati in Kuwati.
He also announced that the US will be providing additional aid for Lebanon to cope with the growing influx of Syrian refugees into the country.
“The US will be providing an additional $76 million, which is the largest amount we have put in directly into Lebanon for the refugee challenge.”
“I want to make it clear that President [Barack] Obama and the US stand very firmly behind our friends in Lebanon,” he added.
Miqati and Kerry are both attending the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria in Kuwait, which aims to raise $6.5 billion for more than 13.4 million Syrians facing extreme conditions inside the country and in neighboring nations.
As Miqati a Hezbollah ally is traveling to Kuwait to call for additional aid for Lebanon, the country’s politicians are engaged in intensified efforts to broker a new national-partnership cabinet that would give eight ministers each to the rival March 8 and 14 alliances as well as centrists.
AFP/UPI
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