Tehran, YJC. Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam has announced that Beirut will mull joining the so-called U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) following the coalition’s meeting in Brussels.
"Foreign Minister
Gebran Bassil will examine outcomes of the Brussels meeting in order to take a
decision [whether] to participate [or not],” Salam said in remarks reported
Wednesday by the Lebanon-based daily An-Nahar.
The first
high-level meeting of the 60-member coalition in Brussels is to be hosted on
Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Salam, however,
reiterated that his country’s military capabilities are limited.
"Lebanon, which
participated in the launch of the coalition in Jeddah, was clear in its
position that its military power is limited and therefore cannot join [the
coalition] at this level,” Salam further stated in comments prior to winding up
his two-day formal visit to Belgium.
He also stated
that the new European Union (EU) administration "is currently focusing its
efforts on finding a solution to the crisis in the region through an end to the
Syrian war.”
The so-called
U.S.-led coalition against the ISIL, however, consists mainly of governments
that actively supported the radical militant group in its terror campaign
against the Syrian government and its military forces as part of a
foreign-backed scheme to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.
Lebanon has also
suffered from militancy which is a spillover of Al-Qaeda- linked insurgency in
Syria.