Mon Feb 26, 6:55 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said Monday he was in Washington to ask for US aid to fight Syrian influence in his country.
"It is not a secret. Yes I am seeking assistance," said Jumblatt, a prominent lawmaker from the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority.
"I need more assistance politically, militarily against indirect Syrian occupation because the direct Syrian occupation is no more."
Jumblatt, who is scheduled to meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday, said in an American Enterprise Institute conference that Syria still holds sway in an "indirect" occupation, working through the militant Hezbollah group and other allies.
"I will do everything to liberate my country from indirect Syrian occupation," said Jumblatt, the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of Lebanon.
Lebanon has been in turmoil since the 2005 murder of popular former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, which has been widely blamed on Syria.
Afterward Damascus was forced to end 29 years of military domination in its small neighbor.
But ever since, Lebanon has been shaken by further attacks, which many also blame on Syria, a war between Israel and Hezbollah that left 1,200 mostly civilian Lebanese dead, and a Hezbollah-led opposition campaign to oust the Western-backed government.
