BEIRUT: Future Movement MP Jamal Jarrah concurred Friday with an earlier statement by U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly, who said that Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government appeared “to reflect less the will of the people.”
“Comments by Ambassador Connelly that the ‘government appears to reflect less the will of the people and more the will of external interests’ describes precisely the reality of the situation because the government reflects Syrian and Iranian interests,” Future Movement MP Jamal Jarrah said Friday.
“This government does not reflect the will of the Lebanese,” he added.
Connelly said during a farewell ceremony for Public Affairs Officer Ryan Gliha Wednesday that Lebanon “took a monumental step in 2005 when the Lebanese people put an end to the Syrian occupation of this country.”
However, she added that the “lack of change and reform in the intervening years has disappointed many of those who gathered in Martyrs’ Square six years ago,” a reference to the “Cedar Revolution” which was a series of demonstrations in Lebanon triggered by the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
“Now, with a government that appears to reflect less the will of the people and more the will of external interests, there is a danger that Lebanon will lose many of its hard-fought gains on the level of democratic participation and transparency,” Connelly told embassy staff, friends and media representatives who attended the farewell reception at the U.S. Embassy in Awkar, northeast of Beirut.
“Extremist elements, terrorist groups, and others who would prey on desperation and poverty are already out there, appealing for allegiance and competing for influence. So this is a critical moment, and this is a test of leadership for all of us,” she said in her speech.
She reiterated remarks by U.S. President Obama in which he said the U.S. is ready to provide “support for those who step up to solve the problems that we and you face.”
“We know that what happens in this region will have implications far beyond,” Connelly added.