A senior U.S. State Department official said Lebanon's government is insulting its people by warning of a return to "civil war" violence during anti-Syria and government demonstrations. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, David Satterfield who arrived in Beirut at the weekend, said: "Rhetoric that threatens violence and instability as a consequence of Lebanon achieving its own sovereignty or independence ought to be unacceptable. They are insulting to the people of Lebanon."Since the assassination of former Premier Hariri, a number of government officials, most notably Prime Minster Omar Karami, have warned that anti government and Syrian demonstrations and today's general strike run the risk of reigniting the kind of violence that enveloped Lebanon during the civil war. Satterfield also defended Washington from government criticism that it was interfering in Lebanese and Syrian internal affairs. He said: "It is not an intervention or an interference for the world to talk of the need for Lebanese to live in freedom."