Bassil Says US Ambassador Tried to ’Drive a Wedge’ between Him and Hezbollah

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement chief Gebran Bassil hit back swiftly on Monday at remarks made by US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea.

“If the US policies have so far failed to break the understanding between the FPM and Hezbollah, despite all the pressures practiced by Washington over the years, the attempt to drive a wedge between them through a statement speaking of ‘certain conditions’ instead of a track of comprehensive national dialogue is a cute attempt, but this way will certainly fail,” Bassil’s press office said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Shea claimed in a video statement that Bassil had recently expressed to her his “willingness to break with Hezbollah, on certain conditions.”

Separately, Bassil’s office said that Shea’s other remarks prove that “there is no evidence behind the corruption accusations addressed to the FPM chief.”

“If this information is available and she does not want to publish it, MP Bassil demands that the relevant US authority at least hand over the information to the competent Lebanese authorities,” the office added.

In her remarks, Shea alleged that the US had “endeavored to make as much information publicly available as possible” when announcing the sanctions on Bassil, but noted that “as is often the case, some of this information is not releasable.”