Bill Rammell, Britain's Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, said in Damascus last week that the new U.S. administration under President Barack Obama is reportedly "comfortable" with his government's attempts to engage Hizbullah in negotiations despite protests to the contrary, Asharq al-Awsat reported on Monday. "We have a different approach on this issue at the moment with the United States," he said. "But it's not an issue of disagreement in intentions. The feedback we had on Lebanon is that the Americans are comfortable with us doing things differently than they are."
While Britain favors attempts to outreach to Hizbullah, senior U.S. officials have privately ridiculed and publicly rejected the U.K.'s idea. "Our position on Hizbullah remains unchanged," Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of State for Near East affairs, told MPs last month. "We see no distinction between the leadership and funding of the group's terrorist, military, political and social wings."