Looking for trouble……..

Syria ridiculed Saturday Washington’s dispatch of the USS Cole and two other vessels to waters off Lebanon as a “losing bet,” and said Washington was unable to impose its solution to Lebanon’s long-running political crisis by force, reports CBS News producer George Baghdadi in Damascus.

“There is a history of U.S. interventions in Lebanon. I think all those experiments were totally useless. I would tell those Lebanese who are betting on U.S. show of strength force that this is a losing bet. America cannot impose a solution in Lebanon as it sees it,” Syrian Foreign Minister Waleed Moallem told reporters in the first official reaction to the U.S. move.

“The only solution comes within the framework of the Arab initiative … and Lebanese consensus,” said Moallem, who was speaking at a joint press conference with Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

Moussa was in Damascus Saturday to discuss with Syrian officials the Lebanese crisis, as well as an Arab summit to be held in Damascus at the end of this month.

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