STL charges detrimental to Mideast

Any possible accusations by a US-backed tribunal against Hezbollah for involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri will create tension in Lebanon and the Middle East, a political analyst says.

Mohioddin Sajedi said if the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Prosecutor Daniel A. Bellemare names some top Hezbollah officials as suspects in the assassination of Hariri, the consequences of such a move would both affect Lebanon and the Middle East region.

The analyst told Press TV that such accusations would best serve the interests of the US and Israel who have resorted to soft war in an attempt to destroy Hezbollah after they failed to bring down the movement through hard war.

“It is clear that the [Hezbollah] movement’s main elements coming under suspicion would mean giving credibility to US and Israeli propaganda, which always tries to portray Hezbollah as a terrorist organization,” he further explained.

According to Sajedi, the consequences of accusing Hezbollah of assassinating a Sunni-Arab political leader will create an insecure atmosphere in Lebanon and will go beyond the country’s borders into the region.

“Unfortunately, there are grounds for such confrontations in Lebanon. If the tribunal’s indictment accuses Hezbollah, an insecure environment will be created in Lebanon which will be named as ‘sedition’,” Sajedi noted.

“There is no doubt that possible clashes will exceed Shia and Sunni boundaries, and will spread to other countries in the Middle East; such as attacks on Christian churches in Iraq and Egypt that there are no guarantees they will not be repeated,” he went on to say.

According to the analyst, if accused of involvement in the 2005 assassination, Hezbollah would refuse to hand over its members to the tribunal and thus the situation would get more complicated.

“Another theory is that Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as it previously announced, refuses to hand over these individuals to the tribunal. Would the Lebanese government or army or security apparatus try to arrest them? These people are the ones who have inflicted the biggest defeat in Israel’s history on this regime. No one is willing to do this, but it would clearly make things difficult for Hezbollah in Lebanon and the region.”

The US-sponsored STL was set up in 2007 to probe the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, who was killed along with more than 20 other people in a massive car bombing in the Lebanese capital of Beirut in February 2005.

According to reports, the tribunal plans to charge some members of Hezbollah in connection with the assassination. Hezbollah, however, denies any involvement in the assassination.

Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has denounced the US-sponsored STL, describing it as part of an American-Israeli conspiracy against Lebanon.

He says the allegations against Hezbollah are part of “a dangerous project that is targeting the resistance.”

The tribunal has been denounced by many political parties in Lebanon, including Hezbollah resistance movement, for ignoring evidence of an Israeli involvement in the terror case as well as relying on false witnesses on the issue.