U.S. President George W. Bush hosted Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora at the White House on Tuesday to discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues. As reporters were welcomed in the Oval Office, Bush said he and Siniora had discussed Lebanon's emergence as a “truly free and independent and democratic” country, in which Beirut might once again emerge as a regional center of finance, culture and the arts. The president said the United States strongly supports an independent and sovereign Lebanon, and he also renewed his commitment to uncovering the men responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. For his part, Siniora said Lebanon has been “undergoing major changes” over the past year and a half, and that it is on course to become “a united, liberal, free country, and at the same time a prosperous economy.” Siniora thanked President Bush and the United States for supporting Lebanon.
