(WMR)—WMR’s Lebanese sources report that Lebanon’s president, Michel Sleiman, has instructed Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi al-Aridi to ready the northern Qleiat airport for possible use by NATO and UN forces for operations inside Syria. Qleiat is located near the Lebanese border with Syria.
Suleiman’s decision to order the ramping up of Qleiat for possible NATO and UN use came shortly after a visit to Lebanon by U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (Ind-CT) and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman. Feltman, who previously served as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon and Lieberman are both staunch Zionists and unabashed supporters of the Binyamin Netanyahu government in Israel.
Lieberman and Feltman met with supporters of the Saudi- and Qatari-backed March 14th Movement of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Haririi. Lieberman also met with Syrian and foreign Salafist guerrillas, including individuals connected in the past to “Al Qaeda” and the Afghan Taliban in refugee camps on the Lebanese side of the Syrian border. Lieberman also met with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who governs with the support of Hezbollah and who would not entertain Lieberman’s call for Lebanon to assist the Syrian rebels trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
However, the readying of the Qleiat airport for NATO and UN troop deployments will increase pressure on Damascus. NATO has long sought the use of the Qleiat base.
Lieberman and Feltman also met in Riyadh with Saudi King Abdullah, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, and Defense Minister Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz and in Doha with the Qatari leadership, where it was agreed that military assistance must be stepped up for the radical Salafist rebels fighting in Syria.
Lieberman’s and Feltman’s concordat with the Salafists and Al Qaeda elements represents yet additional prima facie evidence of the close ties between Israel and Zionism and the Saudi, Qataris, and radical Islamic Wahhabism and Salafism. The same unholy alliance helped pull off 9/11 and countless other “false flag” terrorist attacks around the world in order the maintain a U.S. militarily-guaranteed status quo in the Middle East.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2012 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
