{"id":34259,"date":"2019-03-05T23:23:23","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T23:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=34259"},"modified":"2019-03-05T23:23:23","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T23:23:23","slug":"iran-daily-calls-for-expulsion-of-french-diplomats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=34259","title":{"rendered":"Iran daily calls for expulsion of French diplomats"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"101\">\n<p>\nBEIRUT:\u00a0US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield said in Beirut that Lebanon should reject \u201coptions dictated from abroad,\u201d stressing that the \u201cUS will do everything in its power to support Lebanon\u2019s national options.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nSatterfield, who had been assigned the territorial and naval border dispute file between Lebanon and Israel on the Blue Line and in the exclusive economic zone, arrived in Beirut on Monday evening to brief the Lebanese officials on the results of the Warsaw Conference, which was held in mid-February and devoted to discuss \u201cthe impact of Iran and its terrorism in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nSatterfield\u2019s visit to Lebanon is expected to pave the way for US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited the region in mid-January. He did not visit Lebanon at the time but his visit included Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan.<\/p>\n<p>\nA source at the US Embassy did not confirm Pompeo\u2019s visit. He told Arab News that he does not \u201crule out his visit to Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nSatterfield said in brief statements after meeting a number of Lebanese officials, who did not include President Michel Aoun, that his country was \u201cdeeply committed to Lebanon and would like to see it move forward and face its options.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nHe also said after meeting Lebanese Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, that\u201cthe US and other countries will deal with Lebanon according to the way in which Lebanon will adopt these options, which we hope will be positive for the benefit of Lebanon and its people, not for the benefit of foreign parties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cLebanon now has a new government to take sensitive decisions related to the country\u2019s economy, security and combating corruption,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe US official, accompanied by US Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard, visited Prime Minister Saad Hariri. During the meeting, they discussed \u201cthe latest developments, the general situation in Lebanon and the region and the bilateral relations between the two countries,\u201d according to the media office of the prime minister.<\/p>\n<p>\nAfter his meeting with MP Sami Gemayel, leader of the Lebanese Phalange Party, Satterfield said that his tour in Lebanon \u201ccomes after the formation of the government and in light of the changes in the region. There is a US desire to see real stability and security in Lebanon, and this depends on its national options, not on dictated options.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cLebanon has long suffered from conflicts and ideologies promoted from abroad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThis situation must change and there must be serious decisions in this context. The parties in Lebanon are effective and there must be national action in this direction. The US will do everything in its power to support Lebanon\u2019s national options.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEIRUT:\u00a0US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield said in Beirut that Lebanon should reject \u201coptions dictated from abroad,\u201d stressing that the \u201cUS will do everything in its power to support Lebanon\u2019s national options.\u201d Satterfield, who had been assigned the territorial and naval border dispute file between Lebanon and Israel on&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}