Beirut, September 18: US Middle East envoy George Mitchell met Lebanese President Michel Sleiman on Wednesday to discuss the stalled Middle East peace process and the thorny issue of Palestinian refugees.
Mitchell, who travelled to Beirut from occupied Jerusalem, made no comment after his 20-minute meeting with Sleiman.
The Lebanese presidency said the two men discussed US efforts to reach a comprehensive Middle East peace and the fate of the 400,000 Palestinian refugees who live in Lebanon.
Mitchell sought to reassure Sleiman that US efforts toward peace would not come at the expense of Lebanon, a statement added.
There are concerns among many in Lebanon that a peace deal could force many Palestinian refugees to stay permanently, altering the country’s delicate sectarian balance. The majority of the refugees are Sunni Muslims.
The majority of Palestinian refugees want to return home, but Israel – in defiance of international law – has prevented them from doing so.
Mitchell’s stop in Beirut on Wednesday evening took place shortly after the Lebanese head of state reappointed Saad Hariri as prime minister, giving him a second chance on forming a new government.
It was unclear whether Mitchell planned to meet with any other officials Wednesday evening or whether he planned to stay in Beirut overnight.
Israel waged a bloody 34-day war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 after Hezbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid that aimed to free Lebanese soldiers from Israeli prisons. The bodies of the soldiers were returned in a prisoner swap.
The war claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
Hezbollah, originally a resistance group formed to counter an Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, had forced the Israeli military out of Lebanon in 2000. Israel, however, continues to occupy the Lebanese Shabaa Farms.
Israeli flights over Lebanon occur on an almost daily basis and are in breach of UN Security Council resolution 1710, which in August 2006 ended the war.
—Agencies