Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Grand Serail
Beirut, Lebanon
June 16, 2008
Remarks After Meeting With Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Fouad Siniora
Good afternoon. I’ve just had an opportunity to meet with Prime Minister-designate Siniora. We’ve had a very good
meeting. It’s one of several that we’ve had over the years, and I expressed to him as I did earlier today to President
Suleiman the importance that the United States attaches to Lebanese sovereignty, to Lebanese democracy. I congratulated
him on the successful elections – election of the President, and wished him well on the formation of a government.
In these discussions with both President Suleiman and Prime Minister Siniora, I also told them that the United States
believes that the time has come to deal with the Shebaa Farms issue, and we believe that it should be dealt with in
accordance with UN Security Council 1701 and other relevant resolutions. We intend to ask the UN Secretary General to
lend his good offices to this effort, and we believe that the Secretary General should intensify his work, really
intensify his work, to see the full implementation of all aspects of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
So it was a very good discussion, and I look forward to the remainder of my meetings. The United States very much looks
forward to working with Lebanon to strengthen its democratic institutions and to help bring greater prosperity to its
people. I also said to the Prime Minister that the United States looks forward to attending the conference in Vienna for
the reconstruction of Nahr el-Bared. Thank you very much.
2008/T17-8
Released on June 17, 2008
ENDS