BEIRUT: Lebanon’s politicians have spent 60 years “denying, detouring and deflecting,” the US special envoy Tom Barrack said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
Barrack has been in Lebanon to talk with political leaders over Washington’s proposals to disarm the powerful militant group Hezbollah.
Asked whether the Lebanese politicians he has been dealing with were actually engaging with him or just buying time, the diplomat responded “both.”
“The Lebanese political culture is deny, detour and deflect,” Barrack said. “This is the way that it's been for 60 years, and this is the task we have in front of us. It has to change.”
After meeting President Joseph Aoun on Monday, he reacted positively to the Lebanese government’s response to a US plan to remove Hezbollah’s weapons.
