Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil hit back swiftly on Monday at remarks made by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea.
“If the U.S. policies have so far failed to break the understanding between the FPM and Hizbullah, despite all the pressures practiced by Washington over the years, the attempt to drive a wedge between them through a statement speaking of ‘certain conditions’ instead of a track of comprehensive national dialogue is a cute attempt, but this way will certainly fail,” Bassil’s press office said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, Shea announced in a video statement that Bassil had recently expressed to her his “willingness to break with Hizbullah, on certain conditions.”
Separately, Bassil’s office said that Shea’s other remarks prove that “there is no evidence behind the corruption accusations addressed to the FPM chief.”
“If this information is available and she does not want to publish it, MP Bassil demands that the relevant U.S. authority at least hand over the information to the competent Lebanese authorities,” the office added.
In her remarks, Shea said the U.S. had “endeavored to make as much information publicly available as possible” when announcing the sanctions on Bassil, but noted that “as is often the case, some of this information is not releasable.”