Nasrallah: Hariri tribunal under West pressure

Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah says the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon is under US pressure to speed up the process of announcing the court’s biased indictment.

In a speech aired on the Hezbollah-run al-Manar television station, Nasrallah said that the indictment would be the same as a 2009 report published in the German magazine Der Spiegel which stated that Hezbollah members would be indicted in the murder of former premier Rafik Hariri.

He said his movement would not stand idly while “violations” were carried out against Lebanese citizens by UN investigators probing the 2005 assassination of Hariri.

“We refrained in the past from commenting on the work of the UN investigators, so that no one would say that we are obstructing the probe,” he said.

“But now, no. We have reached a point that we can no longer be silent.”

Nasrallah’s speech came a day after two investigators affiliated with the UN tribunal were injured in a clinic in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The investigators requested contacts for 17 patients for unclear reasons.

“I want to ask Lebanese officials and citizens a question: Who of you would agree to allow someone to look at the medical records of your women?” Nasrallah questioned.

Tensions have run high in Lebanon since reports surfaced that the UN tribunal is poised to indict members of Hezbollah for Hariri’s 2005 murder.

Hezbollah has rejected the charges and dismissed the tribunal as an “Israeli project.”

“All the information and data are reaching Western security agencies and Israel, and copies of all that the international investigators are gathering are being sent to Israel.”

“The violations that have already taken place are enough and also because all that is being offered to them (investigators) is reaching the Israelis. All information, evidence, data and addresses are reaching Israel. Enough violations,” Nasrallah added.

The Hezbollah chief concluded his short speech by calling on the Lebanese people to deal with the demands of the investigators according to their conscience.