Jumblatt and Rizk: "Send the USS Nimitz to intimidate Syria & direct Khalilzad to impress upon Bellmare...... "

Via Friday-Lunch-Club

Wikileaks [26]: Jumblatt & Rizk: "Send the USS Nimitz to intimidate Syria & direct Khalilzad to impress upon Bellmare...... "

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIRUT 000586

NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/YERGER/GAVITO

USUN FOR WOLFF/PHEE/KUMAR

SUBJECT: LEBANON: JUMBLATT ON POSSIBLE NEW UNSCR, NATIONAL

DIALOGUE; RIZK ON UNIIIC EXTENSION

HESITATION OVER A NEW UNSCR, OPEN DISCUSSION ON 1559

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¶3. (C) Jumblatt questioned whether a new UN Security Council resolution focused on putting the Lebanon-Syria relationship on track (Ref A) would benefit Lebanon. He said that it would need to mention borders, an inclusion which might not have unanimous support. He expressed his fear that any new resolution would have “watered-down” language, and would quickly lose momentum, thereby becoming “obsolete, like past resolutions.” He also was noncommittal about whether the next UN session to discuss the latest UNSCR 1559 report should be open or closed, saying that the GOL had not yet agreed whether it was ready to discuss the border issue with Syria...

¶7. (C) When asked how the USG could best support Lebanon at this juncture, Jumblatt said he was pleased to see the USG’s recent public statements on Syria’s efforts to build nuclear weapons.

Jumblatt half-jokingly said that the U.S. should now send the USS Nimitz to intimidate Syria....

Jumblatt noted that the GOL had yet to receive the $1 billion central bank deposit promised by the Saudis. Minister Tohme opined that the holdup is due to “Saudi culture,” and the best way to get the money would be for Prime Minister Foaud Siniora to send his advisor, Mohammed Chatah, to spend four or five days sitting in Riyadh “to move things along.”

¶9. (C) Jumblatt said the Special Tribunal was “not enough” to intimidate Syria. Rizk chimed in to acknowledge that work on the Special Tribunal was “frightening to Syria until recently.”

Both agreed that Syrian President Bashar Assad won’t care about the Tribunal in a year’s time.

Rizk repeated his concerns that UNIIIC Commissioner Daniel Bellemare had stated to some that he “has no case.”

Rizk said the U.S. can help by directing Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to ask the UN SYG to impress upon Bellemare the importance of his role as prosecutor for the Tribunal.....

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