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Senior US administration official: Lebanese political leaders have to make hard choices to save their country

Middle East

18-12-2021 | 04:49

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Senior US administration official: Lebanese political leaders have to make hard choices to save their country

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A senior US administration official said on Saturday that the US want to try to make sure that there are no more failed states in the Middle East region.

“Failed states open vacuums, and those vacuums are not filled by moderates, they’re filled by extremist actors on all sides and become kind of proxy fights by regional powers,” he explained.

He also noted that “Lebanon had all the signs of a potential failed state.”

“We worked quite hard, quite quietly, but Dorothy Shea, our ambassador in Beirut, and working with France and others, and to — plus putting sanctions on particularly corrupt individuals of Lebanon’s political system,” he added.

The senior US official stressed that the administration “is making clear that the only people that can save Lebanon are the Lebanese and particularly the Lebanese political leaders who have to make hard choices to save their country.”

“So, a combination of carrots and sticks,” he emphasized.

The official added that the administration is in close touch with Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

“Our Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, has traveled to Beirut and our Senior Advisor on Energy at the State Department, Amos Hochstein, has traveled to Beirut, working on very important Egypt-Lebanon gas deal with backing for the World Bank,” he added.

“The deal is getting underway and we think is quite important for maintaining stability and trying to get Lebanon out of the crisis that it’s in,” the official explained.

He concluded by saying that “an awful lot of work is going on behind the scenes on Lebanon as we move forward.”

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