Showing posts with label Hezbollah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hezbollah. Show all posts

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Hezbollah reject Hariri warrants

3 July 2011 Last updated at 03:50 GMT Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivers his speech. Photo: 2 July 2011 Nasrallah described The Hague-based tribunal as biased Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has rejected indictments of four of its members over the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former PM, Rafiq Hariri.

He also said no power would be able to arrest the "honourable brothers", who have not yet been named officially.

It was his first reaction to the indictments issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) on Thursday.

The Shia Islamist movement has repeatedly denounced the UN-backed tribunal and vowed to retaliate.

Rafik Hariri and 22 others were killed in February 2005 in central Beirut when a huge bomb went off near his motorcade.

Hariri's son, Saad, welcomed the indictments and described them as a "historic moment" for Lebanon.

'Israeli plot'

In a televised speech on Saturday, Sayyed Nasrallah rejected "each and every void accusation" made by the STL, saying it was tantamount to an attack on the group.

He said the four group members were brothers "who have an honourable history in resisting Israeli occupation".

"They cannot find them or arrest them in 30 days or 60 days, or in a year, two years, 30 years or 300 years," he added. "What will happen is a trial in absentia, a trial in which the verdict has already been reached."

Sayyed Nasrallah went on to describe the STL as full of "financial and moral corruption", and part of an Israeli plot.

"Do you expect this tribunal to be fair with resistance fighters who fought against Israel?" he asked. "This tribunal, since the beginning, was formed for a clear political target."

He displayed documents purporting to show that when the tribunal was transferring equipment from Lebanon to The Hague in 2009, it sent a consignment of 97 computers via Israel.

But the Hezbollah leader also urged people to stop worrying about the potential for conflict, saying the tribunal's indictments would not "drag Lebanon towards strife or civil war".

"This is because there is a responsible government in Lebanon that will not act with revenge," he explained.

Immediately following the speech, bursts of celebratory gunfire and fireworks erupted in Beirut.

On Thursday, State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza said he had received the indictments and four arrest warrants from an STL delegation in Beirut.

Women pass by a giant portrait of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri near his grave, Beirut, Lebanon, 30 June 2011 Rafik Hariri is widely credited with getting Lebanon back on its feet after the 15-year civil war

The STL later confirmed the indictments, stating that the judge "is satisfied that there is prima facie evidence for this case to proceed to trial".

It added that it would not reveal the identities of those indicted.

However, Interior Minister Marwan Sharbil has told the AFP news agency that the names of the men charged are Mustafa Badr al-Din, Salim al-Ayyash, Assad Sabra and Hassan Unaisi.

Mr Badr al-Din was jailed in Kuwait over a series of bombings in 1983, and is a brother-in-law of the late top Hezbollah military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in a 2008 bombing in Damascus.

Leaks from the tribunal suggest it is mainly relying on mobile phone evidence to accuse the Hezbollah members, the BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones in Beirut reports.

The Lebanese authorities now have 30 days to arrest the four men, but with Hezbollah being a strong force within the government, no-one is expecting them to do so, our correspondent adds.


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Friday, June 17, 2011

Hezbollah dominate Lebanon cabinet

13 June 2011 Last updated at 18:27 GMT Najib Mikati at the presidential palace of Baabda, 13 June Najib Mikati was appointed as Lebanon's new prime minister on 25 January Lebanon has announced a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, nearly five months after he was nominated.

The country has been without a functioning government since January, when Hezbollah and its allies toppled the coalition of then-PM Saad Hariri.

The new cabinet gives the powerful Shia group and its allies 16 of 30 seats, up from 10 previously, reports say.

Mr Hariri's pro-Western bloc has dismissed the new cabinet as a "Hezbollah government".

But Mr Mikati says his cabinet will represent all Lebanese. "Do not judge intentions and people, but rather actions," the prime minister told a news conference.

There was much wrangling over key portfolios, with Hezbollah's main Christian ally, the maverick former army general, Michel Aoun, fighting hard to maximise his influence, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut.

Hezbollah itself has only two ministers in the 30-member cabinet. But most of the others are from allied factions across the sectarian spectrum, though there are some neutral figures, mainly loyal to President Michel Suleiman, our correspondent says.

Early trouble

The Hezbollah alliance pulled their ministers from the national unity government in January, bringing down the government of the US- and Saudi-backed Saad Hariri.

Continue reading the main story Finance: Mohammed Safadi, former economy ministerDefence: Fayez Ghosn of Hezbollah's Christian alliesInterior: Marwan Charbel, retired army general considered close to the presidentTelecommunications: Nicholas SehnawiForeign: Adnan Mansour, former ambassador to IranAt issue was a UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the father of Saad Hariri.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate if its members are indicted, as is widely expected. The group denies any links to the killing of the Sunni Muslim prime minister and calls the court a conspiracy by the US and Israel.

The Shia Muslim movement has built itself, with the help of Iran and Syria, into the most powerful military formation in Lebanon, as well as a highly successful political and social organisation.

Correspondents say events in Lebanon matter because it is an important theatre in the face-off between the US and its allies, especially Saudi Arabia - and Iran, Syria and their allies.

The 30-member cabinet must still be formally presented before parliament to win a vote of confidence.

In an early sign of tension, Talal Arslan, named to the post of state minister without portfolio, resigned in protest hours after the new government was announced.

He said Mr Mikati should have given the representative of the Druze community a higher-profile post.


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