Conflicting information have emerged on the Lebanese government setting up a diplomatic mechanism to ask the United States for exemptions in the implementation of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act.
Addressing the Brussels Donors’ Conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Hassan Diab called on the United Nations and the European Union to dissociate Lebanon from the effects of the Caesar Act.
“I call on the United Nations, the European Union and friendly Nations to shield Lebanon from the negative repercussions of any sanction that may be imposed on Syrians, particularly in the context of Caesar Act and to ensure that these repercussions do not disrupt our foreign commercial and economic activities, thus jeopardizing our ongoing efforts to get out of the present crisis that the country is in,” the premier said.
While ministerial sources said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began setting up a mechanism to communicate with the US, which would include an official request to specify exemptions for Lebanon, other political sources stressed that no such move is in the making.
The deadlock was even criticized by pro-government factions, such as the Free Patriotic Movement. FPM leader MP Gebran Bassil advised Diab’s cabinet to seek exemptions from the US to spare the country additional repercussions from the Caesar Act.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, FPM sources emphasized that Bassil’s advice emanated from Lebanon’s need to face financial and economic difficulties.
They noted that the government should not only study the effects of the bill, but communicate with Washington and explain the situation.
Although the bill entered into force more than ten days ago, Lebanese political researcher David Issa says that the government “is trying as far as possible to avoid discussing this sensitive issue because Lebanon cannot currently deal with problems of a regional and international dimension, nor can it jeopardize its relations with Washington.”
“We, in Lebanon, are not concerned with this law, unless we involve ourselves in it. The Syrian war has nothing to do with us,” Issa said, stressing the need to “take steps to protect Lebanon from the repercussions of the Caesar Act, to restore the confidence of the people and to maintain its dissociation policy.”