LOC10:46
07:46 GMT
By Joe Macaron
WASHINGTON, April 18 (KUNA) -- Ambassador Robert Dillon, who served during
the explosion of the US embassy in Beirut in 1983, recalled on Friday how this
incident shaped US foreign policy in this embattled country 25 years ago, and
indicated that Washington possessed information about the culprits.
In an interview with Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Dillon said the
misinterpretation of US foreign policy towards the Israeli invasion of Beirut
in 1982 and the "Iranian grievances" against the United States are the two
main motivations behind this attack.
Washington commemorates later today the bombing of its embassy in Beirut in
a gathering in the Benjamin Franklin Room in the State Department where
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice will deliver remarks.
"We hoped to promote a unified and viable Lebanon and the work with the
Lebanese Army was promising," added Dillon while asserting that the United
States was not able at that time to accomplish any of its objectives in
Lebanon.
He said that investigations revealed that a Shiite family and an emerging
radical group from the Bekaa valley "assisted and controlled by members of the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards" are behind the attack.
The former US Ambassador to Lebanon elaborated on how the 1982 Israeli
invasion "radicalized the Shiite population of south Lebanon".
"Later people have said Hezbollah did it, these were groups that later
became part of Hezbollah "In a sense that is true, in another sense it is
little misleading since Hezbollah has not been formed yet," added Dillon.
On April 18, 1983 a van loaded with explosives drove into the east entrance
of the US Embassy in Beirut killing over 60 people inside, of which 32 were
Lebanese embassy staff, 14 visitors, and 17 Americans from the State
Department, Army, and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The Islamic Jihad Organization was the only faction then to claim the
responsibility of this suicide attack, the deadliest on a US diplomatic
mission.
Dillon noted that the two main investigations after the explosion were led
by the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) and the Lebanese General Security
Directorate.
"The Lebanese government arrested four people who were involved in a very
low level way", he said.
Dillon added that Lebanese authorities were able to establish "tactical
information" on how the attack was launched in the minutes leading to the
explosion.
He said that the persons arrested and interrogated "did not know who they
were working for".
"Two of the arrested suspects realized that they have been asked to stay at
a post, if they stayed at that post, they would have been killed", added
Dillon noting that this is why they decided to speak up.
Dillon cited two major motivations behind this attack.
"Many of these people believed we were complicit in the Israeli 1982
invasion, which we were not", said Dillon.
He noted that there were "Iranian grievances against US policy way back"
manifested in similar radical groups with an objective "to end US influence in
the Middle East."
Three attacks followed on US interests in Lebanon, bombing of the Marine
barracks on 23 October 1983, bombing of the US embassy annex in Beirut on
September 10, 1984, and recently the bombing aimed at a US Embassy vehicle on
January 15, 2008.
Dillon noted that US policy in Lebanon since the two explosions in 1980s
"grew more cautious" and the number of diplomats was reduced but the United
States never "turned its back" on Lebanon.
He was reminiscent about the difficult two years and a half period he spent
as ambassador to Lebanon on the backdrop of the civil war and the Israeli
invasion.
Dillon visited Lebanon just once since in July 2007 for few days when he
went on a private visit to observe first hand the impact of the Israeli war
that summer on the southern suburbs of the country. (end)
jm.rk
KUNA 181046 Apr 08NNNN