Dubai: The leader of Hezbollah late on Sunday said the United States and Israel aborted a Saudi-Syrian initiative to overcome political crisis over the UN Special Tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah Secretary General, said in a televised address that the initiative was aimed at withdrawing Lebanon’s support to the tribunal.
He also said there were ‘Lebanese parties that worked day and night’ to derail the Saudi Syrian efforts.
Sa’ad Hariri, ‘who initially supported the Arab efforts, eventually succumbed to the American will to abort those efforts,’ Nasrallah said.
The Hezbollah-led opposition will not name Hariri for the prime minister’s post when presidential consultations begin on Monday, he said.
But Nasrallah refused to reveal the name of Hezbollah’s candidate for the post, which according to Lebanese system should be a Sunni Muslim.
He again said the party will not accept any decision by the UN court, but will wait and see the indictments when they are issued by prosecutor Daniel Belmare today as expected.
