Israel aided US-backed Hariri tribunal

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Tel Aviv has contributed to a US-sponsored tribunal probing the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri, a report says.

Lieberman has recently acknowledged Israel’s “cooperation” with Hariri’s tribunal, also known as the US-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), and said that Tel Aviv has been transparent and open to the investigation, Lebanon’s al-Akhbar newspaper reported Friday.

Hariri was killed alongside more than 20 other people in a massive car bombing in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on February 14, 2005.

The US-sponsored STL was subsequently set up by the UN and the Lebanese government in May 2007 to investigate the murder. The court is expected to announce its findings by the end of 2010.

Meanwhile, the Israeli foreign minister accused Lebanon’s resistance movement of Hezbollah of trying to undermine the tribunal.

The accusation has been made despite Secretary General of Hezbollah Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah’s repeated rejection of the allegations and warnings against Isreali plots.

In an August speech, the resistance leader presented evidence proving that Israel masterminded the assassination. In his televised address Nasrallah presented footage captured by Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), as well as recorded confessions by Israeli fifth columnists, substantiating that Tel Aviv had been behind the killing.

Nasrallah also pointed out that the investigators had been infiltrating deep into Lebanon and channeling date outwards even before the tribunal took its current form.