Lebanon has been pushed closer to the brink, as four senior members of Hezbollah have been indicted by a U.N. prosecutor:
Four Hezbollah members have been indicted in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Lebanese media outlets reported on Thursday.A delegation from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon filed an indictment in the assassination of Hariri to Lebanon’s Attorney General Said Mirza.Members of the UN backed tribunal met Mirza on Thursday and handed him the 163-page report, which includes four arrest warrants against Hezbollah memebers. The Lebanese LBC channel reported that one of the main suspects named in the indictment is Hezbollah senior member Mustafa Badr Aldin, who is also the brother in-law of the organization’s former “chief of staff” Imad Mughniyah.
The state prosecutor of Lebanon now is supposed to arrest the suspects. If there is any attempt to do so, expect bloodshed. But it is not clear if there even will be an attempt, with Hezbollah and its allies controlling the government.
The Prime Minister of Lebanon, an ally of Hezbollah, already has signalled a “wait and see” attitude:
The Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance, which holds a majority in [Najib] Mikati’s Cabinet, has repeatedly questioned the tribunal’s credibility and described it as an “American-Israeli project” aimed at targeting the resistance.During the news conference, Mikati stressed that Lebanon’s interests should supersede all others.“Today’s reality requires us to study this issue in a wise manner by placing the country’s interests, civil peace … above all other issues,” Mikati told reporters hours after the STL delegation’s visit to Mirza. Mikati added that the indictment needed to be based on irrefutable evidence.“Whoever bet on the indictment dividing the country has been proven wrong,” Mikati said.
Regardless of what else happens, this will have the effect of putting pressure on Hezbollah, which already has lost support among the population of Syria because of Hezbollah’s support of the Assad crackdown on protesters.
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