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Damascus: Syria on Saturday accused the United States of prolonging a crisis in Lebanon by deploying a warship off the country's coast and said that Washington could not impose a solution by "flexing its muscles".
In the first reaction by the Damascus government to Washington's announcement on Thursday of the deployment of the USS Cole, Foreign Minister Walid Al Mua'alem said force was not the answer to Lebanon's political problems.
"We have been saying that the United States was obstructing the political solution in Lebanon and the existence of this ship affirms this," Al Mua'alem said after meeting Amr Mousa, the secretary general of the Arab League.
"Those Lebanese who are betting on the US flexing its muscles will be disappointed. Washington cannot impose the solution it wants. The way out has to be based on a Lebanese consensus," Al Mua'alem told reporters.
A US defence official said the USS Cole, which was attacked by militants in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000, would not be visible from the Lebanese coast.
Hezbollah said on Saturday the warship's deployment "prevents the Lebanese from agreement, hinders initiatives and incites gro-ups against each other".
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