Feltman: Assad will go but brace for long turmoil in Syria

US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman stressed the need for Lebanon to respect constitutional deadlines with regard to next year’s parliamentary elections. He also highlighted the need to maintain stability against the backdrop of a prolonged crisis in Syria, according to Lebanese officials with whom Feltman met. During talks with Lebanese leaders, Feltman assured that Syria’s embattled President Bashar Assad will eventually be toppled under pressure of a widening popular upheaval. Feltman said Lebanon should brace itself for a long period of turmoil in Syria before regime change happens in Damascus, a Lebanese official told The Daily Star.Accompanied by the U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly, Feltman held a round of talks Thursday with President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati and leaders from the opposition March 14 coalition, winding up a three-day visit to Lebanon. He met Thursday with former President Amin Gemayel, leader of the Kataeb (Phalange) Party, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, leader of the parliamentary Future bloc, and accepted Batroun MP Butros Harb’s invitation for lunch at his residence in Hazmieh. Feltman also met Beirut’s Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elias Audeh. Mikati hosted a dinner for Feltman at his residence in Verdun. “Feltman completed his visit to Lebanon today and met with senior officials to discuss the political, economic and security situation in Lebanon, developments in Syria, and other regional issues,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. It said the U.S. official renewed Washington’s “commitment to a stable, sovereign and independent Lebanon.” “Feltman expressed the United States’ steadfast support for pluralistic and democratic governments in the region that protect the rights of all citizens, including ethnic and religious minorities,” the statement added. During his meeting with Feltman, Sleiman emphasized “the significance of helping to make Lebanon a center of dialogue of religions, cultures and civilization because it represents an honorable example of how the region should be,” the National News Agency reported. Last December, Sleiman refused to meet with Feltman, in a tit-for-tat move after U.S. officials declined to meet with the president when he was in Washington on an unofficial visit in September. For his part, Gemayel praised Feltman’s visit, saying such visits confirmed that Lebanon was at the center of diplomatic activity in the region. Speaking after meeting Feltman at the Kataeb headquarters in Saifi, Gemayel called on the “Big Powers” to find a quick solution for the Syrian crisis through the United Nations and the revival of U.N. envoy Kofi Annan’s mission in Syria. Feltman’s visit coincided with a two-day trip to Lebanon by U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, who prodded Lebanon to help the Syrian opposition fighting to topple the Assad regime. Lieberman, a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, also urged Lebanon to offer additional assistance to Syrian refugees fleeing their country as a result of the ongoing fighting there between government troops and rebel soldiers. Meanwhile, Feltman’s visit drew fire from Hezbollah and its March 8 allies, who accused the U.S. official of seeking to inflame strife in Lebanon. “We cannot consider Jeffrey Feltman’s visit to Lebanon as anything other than an attempt to rekindle strife among the Lebanese and undermine the foundations of coexistence by sowing discord among the Lebanese political parties,” Hezbollah’s Baalbek MP Hussein Musawi said. He added that the U.S. official’s visit also aimed at hijacking Lebanon’s decision-making in order to serve the U.S. administration’s strategy. Marjayoun-Hasbaya MP Qassem Hashem said Feltman’s trips to Lebanon and the region were “a bad omen.” He also slammed Lieberman’s visit to the Lebanese-Syrian border, describing it as “a flagrant interference in internal national affairs and an infringement on national sovereignty.”