The prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon filed his indictment Monday for the 2005 murder of premier Rafiq Hariri as Beirut's neighbours backed renewed mediation to calm rising tensions. Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare submitted his long-awaited indictment under wraps, but speculation was rife that it named the Hezbollah militant group in connection with the massive car bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others on the Beirut seafront on Valentine's day six years ago.
"The prosecutor of the tribunal has submitted an indictment and supporting materials to the pre-trial judge," the UN-backed tribunal (STL) said in a statement from Leidschendam, near The Hague, where it is based for security reasons. "The contents of the indictment remain confidential at this stage".
In expectation of being named, Hezbollah warned on Sunday it would "defend" itself and branded the tribunal a tool of the United States and Israel. "We will not allow our reputation and our dignity to be tarnished nor will we allow anyone to conspire against us or to unjustly drench us in Hariri's blood," Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said a televised speech.
The Shia militant group, which enjoys the backing of Iran and Syria, withdrew from the Lebanese cabinet with its allies last Wednesday, citing the UN-backed probe and prompting the collapse of the unity government led by Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the murdered premier. Lebanon's president on Monday postponed talks on naming a new Lebanese prime minister as regional leaders threw their weight behind a Syrian-Saudi bid to defuse the crisis.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met in Damascus on Monday for talks on the deadlock. The three leaders "expressed their commitment to a solution to the Lebanese crisis based on Syrian-Saudi good offices so as to achieve understanding between the Lebanese and avoid a deterioration of the situation," the Syrian SANA news agency reported after the meeting. Iran's acting Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was also to hold talks on the crisis with Erdogan in Turkey later on Monday.
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