✍Schenker in Beirut meets protest activists and skips officials

On 3 and 4 September 2020, a month after the port explosion, the US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs David Schenker visited Beirut and confined his meetings to activists of the 17 October movement and civil society organisations, with a meeting set aside for Shia activists and intellectuals opposed to Hezbollah and Amal, without meeting any political official. He said things "can no longer go on as usual" and that Hezbollah's allies "will be held to account"; four days later Washington sanctioned Ali Hassan Khalil and Youssef Fenianos.

Note: Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) obliges diplomats to respect the laws of the host state and not to interfere in its internal affairs, and the customary principle of non-intervention prohibits coercion in matters within domestic jurisdiction, such as the choice of rulers and the political system (International Court of Justice, Nicaragua 1986). Moving the centre of decision from the constitutional institutions to the embassies weakens the state's standing and encourages the Lebanese parties to appeal to outside patrons.