Refugee situation in Lebanon concerns Sen. Tim Kaine

The bomb went off, about five miles to the south, just as U.S. senators Tim Kaine and Angus King were leaving the U.S. Embassy in Beirut to meet Lebanese President Michel Suleiman.

"We could hear the explosion, we could see the smoke," said Kaine, D-Va. The bomb at the Iranian Cultural Center last week killed six and injured more than 120, the latest in an alarming spike of terrorist incidents as the conflict in Syria spills over into Lebanon.

"But the sad thing to me was, we thought we'd have to cancel the meeting because of the bombing, but that didn't happen," he said. "They say: life goes on even after a bombing ... we sat with the president, as he was fielding calls, one from the Iranian ambassador, but he said he wanted us to see."

Kaine said he was taken aback by the cost Lebanon is paying for the civil war in Syria. Lebanon, with 4 million people of its own, is also sheltering a million who have fled Syria.

Sunni groups are targetting Shias in Lebanon because Hezbollah, the militant Shia group based in Lebanon, is supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad. An Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, said it was responsible for the Iranian center bombing last week.

U.S. support to help Lebanon cope — a $340 million program that provides humanitarian aid for refugees, and military efforts to help the Lebanese bolster their anti-terrorism efforts — is making a difference, Kaine said.

But Suleiman and the country's new prime minister, Tammam Salam, said the real need is for international efforts to get more humanitarian aid into Syria so that people don't have to flee, and to push for an end to the fighting, Kaine said.

Kaine, who leads the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee focusing on Middle East issues, said he plans to hold hearings this week to highlight the refugee situation in Lebanon.

During their trip to the Middle East last week, Kaine and King, I-Maine, also met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, business people and youth, as well as with officials in Egypt.

Kaine said he found a strong commitment among Israelis and Palestinians to the peace initiative negotiated by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Egyptian officials were blunt about their need for U.S. aid to battle terrorism. Kaine said he made clear that Americans are concerned about the pace of progress towards democracy in Egypt, and particularly the recent imprisonment of journalists.

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