Ayatollah Jannati Condemns Ruling of Special Tribunal for Lebanon

A senior Iranian cleric blasted the court ruling that indicted Lebanon’s Hezbollah for murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and said the tribunal was set up to help Washington and Tel Aviv avenge the Israeli army’s failure against Hezbollah resistance.
The Americans and Israelis interfere in this tribunal. The court’s investigation committee reveals intelligence to the enemy and this tribunal is ceremonial and funded by the US,” Tehran’s provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said, addressing a fervent congregation of worshippers on Tehran University Campus here on Friday.

“They want to avenge the defeat in the 33-day war with this propaganda against Hezbollah,” Ayatollah Jannati stated.

Ayatollah Jannati further stressed invincibility of Hezbollah, and noted, “Hezbollah is powerful and the party of God; Americans should know that the Party of God is invincible.”

The Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon has issued arrest warrants for four members of Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah in connection with the Hariri assassination.

After the issuance of the verdict, Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Movement Seyed Hassan Nasrallah underlined Israel’s involvement in assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and criticized the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for ignoring investigation into Israel’s involvement.

Speaking for the first time since the Special Tribunal’s indictment of four Hezbollah members over the murder of Hariri, Nasrallah said that Israel was behind the killing of the former Lebanese prime minister who was murdered in 2005.

“We mentioned the possibility of having Israel involved in the murder and the fact that Israeli agents were present at the murder scene one day before the murder.”

“No one in the tribunal even asked the Israelis anything. This is normal, why? Because the tribunal, since its formation had a precise goal and no one was allowed to talk to Israelis … Instead of investigating the Israelis, the tribunal gathered information from them,” Nasrallah stated.

He further stated that computers investigated by the tribunal were transported through Israel under their way out of Lebanon and asked why they had not been shipped out of a Beirut port to the Netherlands directly.

He said Hezbollah would introduce a document proving the computers were transported from South Lebanon to Israel.

Meantime, Nasrallah warned that Hariri tribunal seeks to spread strife between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Lebanon.