BEIRUT, 14 January 2005 — Prime Minister Omar Karameh has launched a scathing attack against the ambassadors of France and the United States, accusing them of meddling in Lebanon’s domestic affairs, the press reported yesterday.
France and the United States sponsored a UN resolution opposed by Lebanon’s Syrian-backed government which calls for an end to foreign interference and the withdrawal of foreign troops, in a clear message to Damascus.
“Our national dignity is violated each time we receive one of these ambassadors,” Damascus protege Karameh said in remarks the Lebanese press said were clearly directed to the US and French diplomats.
“This interference in our internal affairs is shameful and unacceptable, and there is not one Lebanese who can accept such insolence,” he said in a speech at a Sunni community center.
Karameh lashed out at UN Security Council Resolution 1559 which he branded “a proposal for sedition” that his country would continue to oppose. “We will not stab Syria in the back,” he pledged.
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage made a fresh appeal last week for Syria to end its military presence in Lebanon.
