New US Approach in Region?

Source: Al-Manar TV, 6-10-2008
US officials have been active in Lebanon since the past week as a change in US diplomacy has become clearly visible in the region.
In conjunction with the visit of US Undersecretary of State David Hale to Lebanon, Mary Beth Long, the US Assistant Secretary of Defense for international security affairs, arrived in Beirut heading a military delegation in the wake of a Lebanese request to equip the army and amid an "Israeli" veto. However the "Israeli" rejection is not the only obstacle standing in the way of the Lebanese request. It seems that the outgoing administration of US President George W. Bush will pass this file to the next administration a few months from now.
Hale's visit however comes in a different framework. His tour of mainly non-official figures is seen as a new American approach to the region, particularly regarding Lebanon and Syria. One US official told Reuters that Washington is considering the advantages of reforming its diplomacy.
Sources told Assafir daily that the US administration has acknowledge failure in disarming Hizbullah, and it's instead addressing terrorism at this present phase as a correlative issue extending from Lebanon to Afghanistan.
The West, mainly Europe, Lebanon and Syria are very much concerned about a surge in extremist activity in northern Lebanon what prompted Damascus to order a deployment of some 10,000 soldiers to its southern border, for national security reasons.
In light of this approach, Washington seems interested in equipping the Lebanese army to face this particular terrorism but not to defend Lebanon against "Israel". Bush's administration is also heading towards establishing contact with all groups in Lebanon to make use of their different view points.
With respect to Syria, the sources said that the US State Department was trying to approach Syria as a cardinal player in the region and a basic element in the ‘war on terror'. In this context, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem held their meeting in New York this month. Both top diplomats are expected to hold another meeting in Cairo on the sidelines of the November gathering called for by the State Department and the quartet commissioned to follow up the Annapolis conference.
In Lebanon, the March 14 bloc is stunned by Hale's focus on the security question in north Lebanon. The US official relayed intelligence information saying that the north has become a logistic base for Al-Qaeda with a future threat exceeding the region to Europe and US interests. Former deputy Speaker Elie Firzli said after meeting Hale that the situation is very complicated and critical, "and the Americans need to reconsider their previous way of dealing with Lebanon."
In the meantime, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman was following up the Syrian deployment on the northern border. Syrian President Bashar Assad informed Suleiman in a telephone call that the deployment is in line with the agreed upon measures previously taken by Damascus to prevent smuggling and in harmony with UN resolution 1701.