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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Hariri Confirms He Will Not Cut Links with UN Investigators Despite Hizbullah Demands |
| 2010-11-04 |
| [An Nahar] Prime Minister Saad Hariri confirmed that he will not cut links with U.N. investigators probing the 2005 liquidation of his father, ex-PM Rafik Hariri, despite demands to that effect from Hizbullah. Hariri also renewed his backing for the Special tribunal for Leb regardless of Hizbullah warnings that an indictment could plunge the country into crisis. "The work of the tribunal is ongoing and there are many investigators in Leb, and they are doing their own work," Hariri told the BBC during his official visit to Britain. Hariri said "Yes," when asked whether he gave 100-percent backing to the tribunal. Tensions are running high in Leb amid unconfirmed reports the STL is set to indict Hizbullah members in connection with Hariri's murder. Hizbullah has made clear it would not accept the indictment. Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem ... Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... warned that any charges against Hizbullah members would be "equivalent to lighting the fuse, to igniting the wick for an kaboom." Hariri insisted, in his interview with the BBC, that dialogue was the best way out of the current standoff with Hizbullah and downplayed the risk of unrest. "I think what is dangerous is not to (hold) dialogue about the issues that are really difficult in the country, and I think this is one of the difficult issues in Leb," he said. In a separate interview with the British daily The Times, Hariri said he does not believe that Syria's hereditary President Bashar PencilneckAssad had anything to do with his father's murder. Asked by The Times who he now believed killed his father, Hariri said: "I'm the Prime Minister. I do not have the luxury of speculating these days." "I believe a relationship with a country is simply bound to the interests of two countries and not by personal issues," he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |