Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

U.S. POLICY TOWARD LEBANON

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1997

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS,

Washington, DC.

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:25 a.m. in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Benjamin A. Gilman (chairman of the Committee) presiding.

Chairman GILMAN. The hearing will come to order.

The purpose of today's hearing is to take stock of U.S. relations with an important but frequently overlooked partner in the Middle East: Lebanon.

On October 24th, 1983, the day after 241 U.S. Armed Forces personnel were killed in Beirut, President Reagan stated we have vital interests in Lebanon. Today's hearing will explore whether that is so and if U.S. policy reflects those vital national interests.

Lebanon and the United States of America have enjoyed a long history of friendship and cooperation, which has witnessed the immigration of millions of Lebanese to the United States where they and their descendants have contributed greatly to the fabric of our way of life.

Today, Lebanon is slowly emerging from the chaos of a long civil war which ended in 1990. It is evidently a much different place today than that war-torn country we saw on the evening news in the 1970's and 1980's.

During its civil war, Lebanon endured foreign incursions and occupation. Although that war has ended, non-Lebanese forces still control much of the country, including over 30,000 Syrian troops, an Israeli army contingent and an Israeli-supported militia in southern Lebanon, and civil armed Palestinian factions.

In addition, the terrorist group Hizbollah has virtually a free hand in parts of that country. In various degrees, these forces undermine the authority of the central government and prevent the application of Lebanese law in areas not under its control.

Above all, our Committee is concerned about the basic issue that characterizes Lebanon today and that is the effect of Syria's continuing military occupation. While Israel and Syria both have troops in Lebanon, Israel exercises no control over the Lebanese Government and is on the record as intending to withdraw from Lebanese soil in return for security guarantees.

On the other hand, Syria has never recognized Lebanon's independence. It effectively dictates the major policies and actions of the Lebanese Government and maintains a large military presence in that nation. Syrian dominance is so pervasive that Lebanon has

effectively become a Syrian satellite State. Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad admitted as much earlier this year on U.S. television when he described Lebanon as an extension of Syrian territory.

This Syrian influence has prevented Lebanon from developing direct contacts with Israel and from participating in the multilateral track of the Middle East peace process. Syrian dominance has also been associated with the deterioration in Lebanon's human rights record.

This morning, our Committee will be hearing from our witnesses as to the nature and the consequences of Syria's continuing hegemony in Lebanon and how our Nation should respond. The key question before us is, what should U.S. policy be toward a country that is basically friendly to us and with which we have had long-standing cultural ties but, at the same time, is dominated by a larger neighbor with whom the United States has serious foreign policy differences?

This dilemma is especially important with regard to our approach to the Middle East peace process where, all too often, Lebanon's interests appear to be subsumed under the larger negotiating strategy of Syria.

We will also discuss the U.S. response to Lebanon's role as a safe haven for international terrorists. Both Hizbollah and the Kurdish workers party operate in Lebanon in areas under Syrian control.

This link to international terrorism surfaced again last week when our Nation indicted a Saudi Arabian national, Hani Abdel Rahim Al-Sayegh for his role in the June 1996 truck bombing of a U.S. military compound in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. service people. Al-Sayegh reportedly belonged to a group in Saudi Arabia that was associated with Lebanon's Hizbollah.

We will also review the State Department's policy prohibiting travel by American citizens to Lebanon. This travel ban was instituted in 1987 after terrorist groups took several American citizens hostage during the civil war.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is scheduled to decide by July 31 whether to lift that travel ban or renew it for another 6 months. Our Committee would be interested in the views of our witnesses on whether Lebanon is now safe enough for the travel of American tourists and businesspeople.

Finally, I will be interested in hearing views on recent developments in Lebanon's economic reconstruction program. We applaud the Administration for hosting the Friends of Lebanon conference in Washington late last year in order to solicit pledges from 30 countries and financial institutions to finance reconstruction plans, and we would like to explore with the Administration our Nation's followup to that conference.

So now I would like to ask if any of our colleagues would have some opening statements, and I yield to our Ranking Minority Member, Mr. Hamilton.

Mr. Hamilton.

Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for holding the hearings. I think this is a very timely hearing.

I want to say to our friends from the State Department that you folks have really kept me confused as to whether you were going to show up this morning. Friday, we heard from you straight out

that you would not be here. Didn't hear anything Monday and Tuesday, and I didn't know you were going to be here until I walked in the door a moment ago.

What is going on anyway? I mean, why the reluctance to let us know even whether or not you were going to appear?

Mr. WELCH. Mr. Hamilton, I am the lead witness for the State Department. We had some discussions with staff last week about our availability. I had some travel planned for this week. The Secretary of State changed that for reasons that are not related to this hearing, and I was therefore able to be here. This was communicated to the Committee some days ago. I am not sure exactly when.

Mr. HAMILTON. Well, I understand you have other matters, but it is helpful to me and to the staff if you let us know whether you are going to be here. For me not to be informed until this morning that you were going to be here, it looks to me like it is a little late. Mr. WELCH. To the extent that I am responsible for that, I am sorry about that lapse.

Mr. HAMILTON. Are you responsible?

Mr. WELCH. I am not sure how this failure in communication occurred, to be honest.

Mr. HAMILTON. OK.

Well, Mr. Chairman, we are glad to have the hearing. We welcome our witnesses here, and we welcome Mr. Rahall and Mr. LaHood here to help us out this morning.

Chairman GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Hamilton.

I want to extend a welcome to Mr. LaHood of Illinois and Mr. Rahall of West Virginia, two of our experts on Lebanon problems. They have been watching it very closely.

I welcome our panelists this morning, Mr. McKune and Mr. Welch.

Our first witness is David Welch, who is the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs; and Kenneth McKune, who is the Associate Coordinator for Counterterrorism.

Mr. Welch is a career Foreign Service officer and has had several assignments in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, including posts in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Pakistan.

Mr. Welch was a member of the National Security Council staff at the White House from 1989 to 1991. More recently, he has served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia from 1992 to 1995; and during that time served 2 years as chargé in the absence of an ambassador.

Mr. McKune is also a career Foreign Service officer who assumed his responsibilities in the Office of Counterterrorism in 1995. During his Foreign Service career, Mr. McKune served as a counselor for political affairs at the embassy in Riyadh, also, from 1992 to 1995. Mr. McKune has served in U.S. embassies in Lebanon, in Egypt, in Israel, in Kuwait. He is a veteran of both the Peace Corps, where he served in Morocco from 1970 to 1972; and of the U.S. Army, where he served in Vietnam in the late 1960's.

We are especially pleased to have such qualified representatives of the State Department this morning. We look forward to your testimony.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »