WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:

• Maura Connelly, Ambassador to the Republic of Lebanon, Department of State
 

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Hezbollah is running weapons, including surface-to-surface missiles, from secret arms depots in Syria to its bases in Lebanon, according to security sources.

The Times has been shown satellite images of one of the sites, a compound near the town of Adra, northeast of Damascus, where militants have their own living quarters, an arms storage site and a fleet of lorries reportedly used to ferry weapons into Lebanon.

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The President met today with Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon.  The President commended the Prime Minister for his leadership and for carrying on his father’s legacy, and congratulated him on Lebanon’s term as President of the U.N. Security Council, where Lebanon is contributing to upholding international peace and security.

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Standard  & Poor's Ratings Services raised Lebanon's sovereign-credit
ratings and gave  them a positive outlook because of banking resilience and the
expectation of  political stability in the medium term.

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On Saturday, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri traveled to Damascus for a meeting with Syrian president Bashar Asad, the man widely believed to have ordered the assassination of his father, former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri. The 2005 murder sparked the Cedar Revolution, a mass protest movement that resulted in the end of the thirty-year Syrian military occupation of Lebanon, and swept the pro-West March 14th coalition to power. Although March 14 again triumphed over the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hizballah-led opposition in elections this past June, Washington's allies in Beirut are now facing a crisis. Hariri's trip to Damascus represents the return of Syrian influence to Lebanon, and perhaps, the end of the Cedar Revolution.
 

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Earlier today, Vice President Biden met with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman at the White House. During the meeting, Vice President Biden expressed his appreciation for President Sleiman’s efforts during the formation of the new Lebanese government and welcomed the opportunity to work with the new government on a broad range of security, economic, and political issues.

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PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Thank you very much, everybody.  I want to welcome President Sleiman and his delegation for the excellent visit that we've had. 

I thought that this meeting was critical because the relationship between the United States and Lebanon is critical.  We have a strong friendship between the two countries.  Part of that results from the fact that we have 2 million Lebanese Americans who have made extraordinary contributions to the life of the United States, and continue to do so.  Obviously Lebanon is a critical country in a critical region, and we want to do everything that we can to encourage a strong, independent, and democratic Lebanon.

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It's been half a year since the Obama administration pledged to send an ambassador to Damascus after four years' absence and now we are seeing movement.

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