Pat Dollard | Young Americans

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah on Friday denounced the deployment of U.S. warships off the coast of Lebanon, calling it a threat to the country’s sovereignty, but the Shiite militant group said it would not be intimidated by the move.

The U.S. military said Thursday the Navy was sending at least three ships, including an amphibious assault ship, to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength amid tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon.

“We are facing an American threat against Lebanon,” Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah said on local television. “It is clear this threat and intimidation will not affect us.”

Hezbollah is leading the opposition that seeks to topple the U.S.- backed government in Beirut. The group fought Israel in the 2006 war and is believed to be linked to Muslim terrorists who attacked U.S. forces and diplomats in Lebanon in 1983-84 during the Lebanese civil war, killing about 270.

Fadlallah’s statements on Aljadeed television gave the scope of the Syrian- and Iranian-backed guerrilla group’s views, and he called on the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to reject the deployment. Saniora was expected to address the matter later in the day.

Members of Saniora’s U.S.-backed, anti-Syrian coalition said they had no links to the American decision but blamed what they described as Syria’s attempts to undermine Lebanon for bringing tensions to such a level.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday the deployment should not be viewed as threatening or in response to events in any single country in the volatile region.

But the decision appeared to be a not-too-subtle show of U.S. force as international frustration mounts in the region over a long political deadlock in tiny, weak Lebanon.

The U.S. blames Syria for the impasse, saying Syria has never given up its ambitions to control its smaller neighbor.

The presidential election in Lebanon has been delayed 15 times. Just this week the date was pushed back to March 11.

Fadlallah said Hezbollah would not be affected by “threats and intimidation and such American military shows which do not affect our choices and decisions.”

Stretching its military muscle is “proof of failure” of the U.S., the Hezbollah lawmaker said.

The deployment made the front page of newspapers in Lebanon. The pro- opposition As-Safir daily called the U.S. decision “provocative” and had the headline: “Cole destroyer in Lebanese waters to terrorize the resistance, Syria and the (Arab) summit.”

Syria is to hold an Arab summit at the end of next month, and U.S.- allied Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt are reportedly threatening to boycott if no president is elected in Lebanon by then.

The U.S. deployment brought back memories of U.S. involvement in Lebanon in the 1980s.

In 1983, at the height of U.S. intervention, about 17 ships—two aircraft carrier battle groups and two mammoth battleships—patrolled the Lebanese coastline with a Marine contingent deployed at Beirut airport.

A suicide bombing destroyed the Marine base in October 1983, killing 241 American service personnel, and a U.S. Embassy building was destroyed by another suicide bomber during that period. U.S. warships also were involved in shelling anti-government Muslim militia positions.

Lebanese territorial waters are now patrolled by a U.N. Naval Task Force that is assisting Lebanese authorities under the U.N. resolution that halted the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The last time U.S. ships came to Lebanon was during the 34-day conflict in 2006, with warships taking part in the evacuation of Americans.