Hizbullah: US controlled Hariri probe to 'light a fuse'
ICJ tribune files first indictment in 2005 Lebanese PM assassination, which reportedly names Hizbullah, Ayatollah Khaminei.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, HERB KEINON, APHizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah 311 AP(photo credit: AP)
Hizbullah blamed the US for the indictment in the Hariri assassination tribunal, which was submitted on Monday.According to the Hizbullah-aligned television station Al-Manar, "Washington pushed the indictments in order to light the fuse that will blow up the bridges that were built in order to find a solution" after the Lebanese government collapsed last week.RELATED:Nasrallah: US and Israel caused Lebanese gov't collapseHariri: There is no alternative to dialogue"The Americans controlled the indictment in form and content," Al-Manar reported.The UN tribunal set up to prosecute the assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri says its prosecutor has filed the first indictment in the case, nearly five years after the deadly truck bombing.Details of suspects named and the charges against them have not been released.Tribunal registrar Herman van Hebel said in a statement Monday prosecutor Daniel Bellemare sent the indictments to Judge Daniel Fransen, who must decide whether to confirm or dismiss them or ask for more evidence.Lebanese news sources reported that the indictments focus on Hizbullah members that planned and executed the assassination.Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reportedly been indicted for giving the instructions to kill Hariri in February 2005, AFP reported. Israeli officials continued to carefully watch the events in Lebanon unfurl, but careful not to comment on the developments so as not to be seen as intervening in one war or the other.One source said that a finger pointed at the Khamenei – although it would be a major news story – would unlikely change international attitudes toward Iran significantly, because the country is already "in the world's dog house."
Most of the world already knows what Iran is capable of doing, the source said, while other countries that support Iran – like Venezuela – would not be swayed one way or the other.Revelation of an Iranian involvement would also unlikely change anything inside Lebanon for the simple reason everyone there knows very well the closeness of the Iranian-Hizbullah ties, the sources said. Last Wednesday, Hizbullah pulled out of the Lebanese government, leading to its collapse, due to Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri's support of the probe into his father's murder.Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that Israel sabatoged negotiations following the death of Hariri, and supports the destablization of his country."Should one expect that Israel or the United States will allow an Arabic political process to end smoothly? Never," Nasrallah said. Nasrallah also went on to blame Hariri, in conspiring with the US against him.Click here for full Jpost coverage of the turmoil in Lebanon
