US Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard held talks Tuesday (February 19th) with Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and relayed to him concerns over Hizbullah's "growing role in the cabinet", Naharnet reported.
"I am just really delighted to be here back at the Serail to greet the Prime Minister and congratulate him on the new government," Richard said after the meeting.
"It has been a long time coming and we are just thrilled that there is finally a government," she said.
But Richard expressed concerns over "the growing role in the cabinet of an organisation that continues to maintain a militia that is not under the control of the government", apparently referring to Hizbullah.
Hizbullah "continues to make its own national security decisions" and "continues to violate the government’s disassociation policy by participating in armed conflict in at least three other countries", the ambassador said.
Warning that this state of affairs does not contribute to stability and is "fundamentally destabilising", Richard said she is very hopeful that Lebanon "will not be derailed from the path of progress now before it".
