NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 21, 2004

A delegation of the National Alliance of Lebanese Americans (NALA) met on Monday June 21, with officers of the United States National Security Council at the White House.  Toufic Baaklini, Ramzi Rihani and Joseph L. Boohaker, met for an hour with the Presidential advisors and discussed a wide range of topics dealing with regional and Lebanese agenda items.

Regionally, the delegation discussed the Greater Middle East Strategic Initiative that has been proposed by the American Administration, and its implementation in Lebanon.  Also discussed were the hostilities reported today on the Lebanese Israeli border involving Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as well as developments in the Iraqi conflict.

In particular, the delegation discussed the Beirut Declaration, its origin as a product of multi-confessional collaboration strictly among Lebanese from different religious, social, partisan and regional backgrounds, and its general intent of breathing life back into the Taif Accord process, which has not seen complete implementation.  The delegation addressed the need for the constitutional process to proceed this year for the election of a new president in Lebanon, rather than the extra constitutional measures needed to extend the mandate of the current regime.  While the delegation did not seek American intervention into the Lebanese election process, it did seek American support for the proposition that the integrity of the Lebanese constitutional process ought to be respected by all parties so that the new Lebanese president should be the choice of the elected representatives of the Lebanese people in their Parliament, as the constitution requires, and no one else, neither Syrian, American, nor any other outside party. 

Within the context of the Greater Middle East Strategic Initiative is the concept of the promotion of self-government among the nations of the region, and that within that context, the United States ought to give its support to the work of the drafters of the Beirut Declaration to the end that the process should go forward and that all outside parties should stand back and allow the Lebanese to elect their next President.  The American officials noted the consistency between the concept of the Beirut Declaration and the broader regional strategy proposed by the American government.   The American officials assured the NALA delegation that the US would review the Beirut Declaration upon its issuance and give serious consideration to lending it American support.

Also discussed was the implementation of the Syrian Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 (Pub. Law 108-175 Dec. 12, 2003) and a recent article appearing in the magazine “Foreign Affairs” entitled The Road to Damascus by Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson (Vol. 83 No. 3 May/June 2004) in which it is strongly indicated that the Act will be used primarily as leverage on Syria to bring it to a peace accord with Israel on the Golan Heights.  The delegation was assured that the Act will be enforced to achieve its stated purposes, one of which is the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty whether or not Syria and Israel reach an accord. The official read to the NALA delegation from the declarations made at the Group of Eight summit held last week at Sea Island, Georgia, in which the sovereignty and integrity of the Republic of Lebanon was reaffirmed by all participants.  The official stated that the integrity of Lebanese sovereignty and independence has become a cause of both the United States and the European Union.  He also stated that the issues and positions on those issues as articulated by the NALA delegation were “on the same wave length” as those expressed by the United States and the European Union. The NSC officials asked for a follow-up meeting after the delegation conducts a fact-finding mission in Lebanon.