BEIRUT\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A U.S. diplomat apologized Thursday for using the word \u201canimalistic\u201d while calling for a gaggle of reporters to quiet down during a news conference in Lebanon earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Tom Barrack, who is the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and envoy to Syria and has also been on a temporary assignment in Lebanon, said he didn\u2019t intend to use the word \u201cin a derogatory manner\u201d but that his comments had been \u201cinappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrack visited Beirut along with a delegation of U.S. officials on Tuesday to discuss efforts by the Lebanese government to disarm the Hezbollah militant group and implementation of the ceasefire agreement that ended the latest war between Israel and the Hezbollah in November.<\/p>\n
At the start of a news conference at the presidential palace, journalists shouted at Barrack to move to the podium after he started speaking from another spot in the room. After taking the podium Barrack told the crowd of journalists to \u201cact civilized, act kind, act tolerant.\u201d He threatened to end the conference early otherwise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moment that this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we\u2019re gone,\u201d said Barrack.<\/p>\n
The comment sparked an outcry, with the Lebanese press syndicate calling for an apology and calling for a boycott of Barrack\u2019s visits if none was issued. The Presidential Palace also issued a statement expressing regret for the comments made by \u201cone of our guests\u201d and thanking journalists for their \u201chard work.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview with Mario Nawfal, a media personality on the X platform, an excerpt of which was published Thursday, Barrack said, \u201cAnimalistic was a word that I didn\u2019t use in a derogatory manner, I was just saying \u2018can we calm down, can we find some tolerance and kindness, let\u2019s be civilized.\u2019 But it was inappropriate to do when the media was just doing their job.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cI should have been more generous with my time and more tolerant myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrack\u2019s visit came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces could begin withdrawing from territory they hold in southern Lebanon after the Lebanese government\u2019s decision to disarm Hezbollah. When, how and in what order the Hezbollah disarmament and Israeli withdrawal would take place remain in dispute.<\/p>\n
The Israeli army on Thursday launched airstrikes in southern Lebanon that it said were targeting \u201cterrorist infrastructure and a rocket platform\u201d belonging to Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
Several hours later the Lebanese army announced that two of its soldiers had been killed while investigating an Israeli drone that had crashed in the area of Naqoura on the southern coast, which then exploded. It was not clear why the drone had fallen or what caused the explosion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIRUT\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A U.S. diplomat apologized Thursday for using the word \u201canimalistic\u201d while calling for a gaggle of reporters to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[132038,7044,836,134171,38380,134169,134167,838,40325,134170,39362,132039,134168,49,978,659,23904,134166],"class_list":{"0":"post-387090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-barrack","9":"tag-comment","10":"tag-hezbollah","11":"tag-israeli-drone","12":"tag-journalist","13":"tag-lebanese-government","14":"tag-lebanese-reporter","15":"tag-lebanon","16":"tag-news-conference","17":"tag-presidential-palace","18":"tag-thursday","19":"tag-u-s-ambassador","20":"tag-u-s-diplomat","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-visit","25":"tag-word"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115123303550810314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}