Alexander Torshin, vice speaker of Russia's Federation Council, said Wednesday in Beirut that the task of setting up an international tribunal to try suspects in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was like that of a jewel-maker who requires sufficient time. "We in Russia certainly support the international tribunal and so does President [Emile] Lahoud," said Torshin after a meeting with Lahoud in Baabda. "There are many details with regard to this tribunal, and we Russians are following them closely at the United Nations. "It is like a jeweler. He needs enough time to get a piece of art done well and beautifully, the same as the establishment of the international tribunal."
Torshin's trip to Beirut coincides with the visit of the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Welch, who arrived on Tuesday. The Russian legislator also warned that foreign intervention in Lebanon's domestic affairs would "hamper any consensus among the Lebanese and block any possible meeting among them to reach agreement on all pending matters. "Russia wants to see an independent, sovereign Lebanon, a Lebanon that is run without foreign interference," he added.
That'd be us...| Looking back, the Hariri hit on Valentine's Day 2005 was the point at which the wheels started falling off the WoT wagon. Dubya had just been reinaugurated for his second term, with a pocket full of "political capital" and majorities in both houses of Congress. Fred had been fairly confident that Assad was on his way out, calling for his ouster before 9/11/05, and I believe that Fred was right. And then a beirut street blew up under Hariri's convoy. I now think was Iran's probe of world response to the most flagrant and dire provocation, via Syria via Hezbollah. And Iran learned the world would do absolutely nothing, and that's when they ramped up the men and materiel flooding into Iraq, poked the Tater Tots with a very sharp stick, and began blowing the bejabbers out of our patrols. |
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