in the past, and were particularly interested in attempts to repatriate many Kuwaiti citizens who had disappeared during the Gulf War, and were presumably languishing in Iraqi jails up until Saddam's fall from power. Kuwait also allowed the U.S. to launch the 2003 invasion of Iraq from the U.S. military bases stationed in Kuwait. However, Kuwait did not deploy forces to the Iraq War. In 2004, President Bush designated Kuwait as a Major non-NATO ally Lebanon President Bush stated Lebanon "can serve as a great example (to other countries) of what is possible" in the Middle East". In April 2006, following a meeting at the White House with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, Mr. Bush said that the United States "strongly supports a free and independent and sovereign Lebanon". He recalled the 2005 Cedar Revolution, in which hundreds of thousands of Lebanese protested against and forced the withdrawal of Syrian troops from their country. Prime Minister Siniora stated "We took great joy in seeing the Cedar Revolution. We understand that the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the street to express their desire to be free required courage, and we support the desire of the people to have a government responsive to their needs and a government that is free, truly free." President Bush recalled Lebanon's "great tradition" of serving "as a model of entrepreneurship and prosperity". He also called for a full investigation into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, which helped spur the Cedar Revolution. Prime Minister Siniora said the United States "has been of great support" to Lebanon, which has gone through "major changes" in the past year-and-a-half" and that "Lebanon has really been committing itself that we want the change to happen to in a democratic and a peaceful manner, but at the same time, to really stay course on course; that we are there to meet the expectations of the people to have a united, liberal, free country, and, at the same time, prosperous economy.... The United States has been of great support to Lebanon. I am really convinced that President Bush and the United States will stand beside Lebanon to have Lebanon stay as a free, democratic, united, and sovereign state." "Out of the tough times [Lebanon] has been through", said President Bush, "will rise a state that shows that it's possible for people of religious difference