US ambassador to Lebanon summoned after controversial Hezbollah speech

Accused by a judge in southern Lebanon of wanting to promote sedition after controversial remarks about Hezbollah, the American ambassador in Beirut, Dorothy Shea, was summoned to the Lebanese Foreign Ministry on Monday June 29. She is scheduled to meet with Minister Nassif Hitti "in light of his recent statements," the ANI news agency said on Sunday.

In an interview Friday with Saudi Arabian television channel Al-Hadath, Dorothy Shea expressed "grave concerns" from Washington "over the role of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization". The Shiite movement has "siphoned billions of dollars that should have gone into government coffers (...) and hampered certain economic reforms that Lebanon desperately needs", she accused, while the country is in plagued by its worst economic crisis in about 30 years.

>> Read: Hezbollah chief accuses Washington of "starving" Syria and Lebanon

Outcry

On Saturday, an interim judge in the city of Tire (south), Mohamad Mazeh, decided to prohibit, under penalty of sanctions, the Lebanese and foreign media working in Lebanon from interviewing Dorothy Shea for a year, a decision immediately welcomed by Hezbollah.

The Lebanese authorities must "take immediate measures to force this ambassador to respect international law", exhorted Sunday Hassan Fadlallah, deputy of the powerful Shiite party, referring to the Geneva convention on diplomatic relations.

We believe very much in freedom of expression and the important role a free media plays in the United States and Lebanon. We stand with the Lebanese people.https: //t.co/7IB2d96CJ8

Several media were indignant at the judge's decision. The local channel LBC thus considered that it was "non-binding and impossible to implement", and that it violated the freedom of the press. A judicial source told AFP that judge Mazeh had "gone beyond his prerogatives".

Country of 18 religious communities, Lebanon is governed by a complex system of power sharing where justice is often the subject of political and community tensions.

Attempt at "censorship"

For the US State Department, this is a "pathetic" attempt at "censorship" on the part of Hezbollah. Lebanese Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad, for his part, stressed the need to ensure freedom of the press.

>> Read: Germany: Lebanese Hezbollah designated as terrorist organization

Judge Mazeh threatened Sunday to resign if he were to be brought before the judicial inspectorate, after information to that effect relayed by local media.

The incident comes amid growing tensions between Washington and the Shiite party, which recently accused the United States of seeking to cause famine in Lebanon and to ban the inflow of dollars, the currency on which the pound is indexed. Lebanese.

With AFP

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