BEIRUT — U.S. Sen. John Kerry said on Wednesday that the new administration will press Syria to help disarm Hizbullah as it forges ahead with a fresh diplomatic approach in the region.

John Kerry, Chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee (L) shakes hands with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora at the government palace in Beirut, February 18, 2009. REUTERS/ Mohamed Azakir

“We want Syria to respect the political independence of Lebanon, we want Syria to help in the process of resolving issues with Hizbullah and with the Palestinians,” Kerry said, after meeting President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
“We want Syria to help … with the disarmament of Hizbullah,” added the former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, who is also due to visit Damascus on his regional tour.

Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the new administration of U.S. President Barack Obama plans to adopt a fresh approach as it addresses key issues in the Middle East.

“Unlike the Bush administration that believed you could simply tell people what to do and walk away and wait for them to do it, we believe you have to engage in a discussion,” Kerry said.

“So we are going to renew diplomacy but without any illusion, without any naivete, without any misplaced belief that, just by talking, things will automatically happen.

“They will happen when things are met on both sides and you have to talk with people in order to understand those expectations and reach agreements,” he added.

Kerry stressed that a growing rapprochement between the U.S. and Syria would not come at Lebanon’s expense.

“Whatever discussions we have in Syria or in Egypt or in Saudi Arabia … nothing, I can assure you, will occur that will come at the expense of our relationship with Lebanon,” he said.

He said he hoped that parliamentary elections scheduled for June 7 would vindicate the position of U.S. allies in Lebanon in their demands for respect of the rule of law.

“No country can survive … with independent entities operating on their own, outside of the law or creating their own law or operating by their own rules,” the Senator said in an allusion to Hizbullah.

“So hopefully this election will be an opportunity, which we are very much supportive of, for the Lebanese people to make the decision about their own future.”

The election will pit the current parliamentary majority against a Hizbullah-led alliance.

Kerry arrived in Lebanon from Jordan on the latest leg of a regional tour that will also take him to Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Syria.

The tour comes as the Obama administration works to convince the Arab world that it will ramp up U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process.

Later on Wednesday, Kerry visited parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri at his residence in Qoreitem.

Kerry told reporters after brief talks with the Future Movement leader that no deals would be cut with Syria at the expense of the international tribunal to try suspects in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“The tribunal is an independent issue that has nothing to do with our relations with Syria. It is a matter related to justice, truth, and accountability,” he said.

Meanwhile at the Hague, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, due to try the suspected killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said on Wednesday that it will open its doors in a suburb of The Hague on March 1.

“To mark this historic event, a short public ceremony will be held at the STL court building,” the tribunal said in a statement.

Officials expected to attend the ceremony include Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, registrar Robin Vincent, and Patricia O’Brien, the U.N. under secretary general for legal affairs.