US backs Mikati's stance on Hezbollah's military drill
The United States has voiced support for caretaker PM Najib Mikati’s criticism of the military drill that Hezbollah has staged in south Lebanon.
“Hezbollah is more concerned with its own interests and those of its patron Iran than what is best for the Lebanese people. And I just want to note something that the prime minister of Lebanon said, which is the event constituted a diminution of Lebanon’s authority and sovereignty, and add that moreover, it threatens Lebanon’s security and stability,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press briefing.
The Lebanese government “rejects any act that infringes on the state’s authority and sovereignty, but the issue of Hezbollah’s arms requires comprehensive national consensus,” Mikati said on Monday.
“This should be among the priorities of the coming stage,” Mikati told U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka. “At the current time, the government stresses the need to preserve security across Lebanon and not to carry out any act that might undermine it,” Mikati added.
Hezbollah put on a show of force on Sunday, extending a rare media invitation to one of its training sites in southern Lebanon, where its forces staged a simulated military exercise.
Masked fighters jumped through flaming hoops, fired from the backs of motorcycles, and blew up Israeli flags posted in the hills above and a wall simulating the one at the border between Lebanon and Israel.
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said in a speech Sunday that the exercise was meant to "confirm our complete readiness to confront any aggression" by Israel.
Source: Naharnet
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