US Congressman Darryl Issa on Friday rejected as inaccurate press reports that he is in Lebanon to offer the government half a billion dollars in US aid in return for neutralizing Hizbullah.
“There are no preconditions for the aid to Lebanon in my proposals; the reports did not come out from my office,” Issa, a Republican congressman for California, affirmed in an interview with The Daily Star.
Nevertheless, Issa stressed the need for stability as a precondition for investment.
“If we are going to have people investing time … and being in the South (of Lebanon), we need to have protection … and an atmosphere of cooperation agreed on,” he said.
Regarding these concerns, Issa said he had talked with congressmen, as well as Jewish members and others close to the Jewish lobby in the United States.
The Beirut daily Al-Safir reported Thursday that Issa and Democrat Congressman Robert Wexler are in Beirut to discuss the delivery of $500 million in phases to Lebanon in return for disarming Hizbullah.
Issa said Friday he was asking for guarantees of stability and the ending of hostilities from both sides. “Provocative acts on either side are wrong,” he said.
While the Bush administration is pressing for a complete and immediate withdrawal of Hizbullah from the South, Issa said he did not strongly oppose negotiating a cease-fire on the border while a peace settlement is being worked out.
“If the Syrian and Lebanese governments offered a cease-fire and a gradual sustained pullback … as an interim step … I would recommend that my government negotiates the specifics of such an agreement,” Issa said.
Issa said that the United States recognizes that Lebanon has worries about its safety but needs assurances that Hizbullah will withdraw from the South and the Lebanese Army will be deployed there instead.
“If the Lebanese ask for assurances, and if they meet their international responsibilities, then we will use all our efforts to reassure the safety of Lebanon, and I think assurances from the United States should be granted,” he said.
The presence of Hizbullah in the South has no positive purpose according to Issa.
“I think, and we all know it, that if the Israeli Army wanted to come back in, Hizbullah would not be able to stop them. So standing on the border or sending anti-aircraft shells or dropping them in Israel,” is ineffective, he said.
Issa, “on the record”, said that “Israeli overflights in Lebanese airspace is wrong. Certainly if the Lebanese government complains to the US or the UN about the overflights, the complaints should be heard.”
Issa said he does not expect much from the Lebanese Army due to its limited resources, and therefore it cannot keep law and order in the Palestinian refugee camps. Issa believes that the US administration should offer assistance in this regard.
The Syrian and Lebanese animosity towards Israel is a political reality, Issa stated, and remains a political reality due to the unsettled question of the Palestinian people living without a state.
Issa reiterated President George W. Bush’s position regarding a commitment to a Palestine state by 2005, and added that he was “committed to the Palestinian people anywhere in the world being able to return to that new state.”
Liking the situation between Syria and Lebanon toward Israel, and the Palestinian position toward the Jewish state, Issa said “both sides are using sticks”, rather than a “carrot-carrot situation.” By this, Issa is using a simplified analogy to imply that neither side is attempting a win-win situation for both sides, and believes that both sides have concede to one another.
If prosperity is their goal, Issa thinks that the Israelis should help “with security, and the other side stopping the intrusions and suicide attacks.”
Issa met Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, alias Abu Mazen, in the West Bank recently, and said that Abu Mazen was “looking for a one year guaranteed cease-fire” by Palestinian militant groups, under the condition that it was not used as a time to resupply and consolidate their positions. Issa said that this is a positive step toward peace, but will require effective cooperation at all levels for peace to become a reality.
Issa also had a meeting with Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, saying the premier “is very aware of the water problems,” and added that Hariri believes that with “tourism growth, and Lebanese expatriates returning for vacations, a lot more water is being consumed than is used locally.” Issa said that Hariri recognized that demand will grow exponentially and it is of crucial importance to invest in water projects.
Issa said that as the Litani River flows into the sea, and not across any national borders, it is an ideal river for Lebanon to use to use for more water projects in the near future.