By IRNA
Damascus : Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Saturday that a US Navy deployment off the coast of Lebanon threatens security in the region.
He warned the United States it cannot impose its own solution to the long-running political crisis in Lebanon.
There is a history of American fleet intervention in Lebanon. I think these experiences were not at all useful,” al-Moallem said.
Al-Moallem said the American military move is counterproductive.
“Such a show of force will not be useful and will not lead, as they claim, to security in the region. It is against the security of the region,” he said.
“I say to those Lebanese who are betting on America’s muscle flexing off the coast of Lebanon that this is a losing bet,” he added.
“America cannot impose a solution in Lebanon as it sees it.” Al-Moallem accused Washington of obstructing a settlement to the Lebanese crisis.
“The presence of this warship reinforces what we have been saying, that America is obstructing proposed political solutions in Lebanon,” he said.
Among those solutions, he said, was an Arab initiative which Secretary General Amr Moussa has been trying for weeks to market among feuding parties in Lebanon.