BEIRUT — The US ambassador to Lebanon says after meeting the country’s foreign minister that they have “turned the page” over a court ruling issued over the weekend barring local and foreign media from interviewing the envoy over her comments regarding Hezbollah.
A judge had ordered the year-long ban after US Ambassador Dorothy Shea told Saudi-owned TV station Al-Hadath that Washington has “great concerns” over the Iran-backed terrorist group’s role in the government.
She said Lebanon is reeling from years of corruption of successive governments and accused Hezbollah of siphoning off government funds for its own purposes and of obstructing needed economic reforms.
Critics viewed her comments as foreign interference in Lebanese affairs, but the judge’s ruling was also harshly criticized by many in Lebanon, where the media enjoys far more freedom than in many other Arab states.
Today, Shea reads a brief statement in which she says her meeting with Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti was “positive.”
“We turned the page on this unfortunate distraction so we can all focus on the real crisis at hand, which is the deteriorating economic situation in Lebanon,” she says.
A few protesters held a sit-in outside the Foreign Ministry during the meeting.
The court ruling remains in effect but appears unlikely to be enforced.
— Agencies
Lebanese Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti, left, meets with US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea, in Beirut, Lebanon, June 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
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