Meddling would discredit Hariri tribunal

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says nobody will take the tribunal investigating the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister seriously if there is “interference” in its ruling.

The US-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is attempting to determine who was behind the murder of Rafiq Hariri, who was assassinated in 2005 in a massive car bombing in Beirut that also killed 22 other people.

The newly-appointed Registrar of the STL, Herman von Hebel, said on Thursday that he expects the court’s prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, to send a draft indictment to the pre-trial judge for confirmation “very soon.”

Assad told the French broadcaster TF1 on Friday that the ruling would be futile if it was tainted by political interference.

“If the decision of the tribunal is based on evidence, everybody will accept its conclusions, not only Syria but also Lebanon,” he said at the end of a two-day visit to France.

“If there is a decision based on a simple suspicion or political interference, then at that moment nobody will take the tribunal’s conclusions seriously,” Assad stated.

According to unconfirmed reports, the STL plans to charge some members of Hezbollah in connection with the Hariri assassination.

Hezbollah, which has vehemently denied playing any role in the assassination, has dismissed the US-backed tribunal as an “Israeli-American project” established with the goal of undermining the resistance movement and creating division in the country.