STL example of US soft war in region

A senior Iranian commander has described the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) as an example of the soft war waged by the United States in the region.

“The US and Israel have suffered unimaginable defeat and failure in two all-out and difficult wars against Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestine’s Hamas,” Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on Monday.

The Iranian commander said the use of soft and semi-hard war approaches and methods have been placed on the agendas of security, political, social, cultural and public diplomacy apparatuses of the US, Israel and some of the European countries because of these failures.

“The US knows it is no match for Hezbollah, so it is trying to disturb the array of Lebanon’s different social layers,” Mehr News Agency quoted Jazayeri as adding.

Jazayeri advised the people of Lebanon and its neighboring countries to be more vigilant towards the political and anti-security moves of foreign countries in the region.

Rafiq Hariri and more than 20 other people were assassinated on February 14, 2005, when explosives equal to around 1,000 kilogram of TNT were detonated in downtown Beirut. The Washington-sponsored Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) was set up some two years later to look into the incident.

Reports say that the court was likely to issue an indictment against some Hezbollah members.

Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has vehemently rebuffed the allegations and described the tribunal as part of dangerous projects, targeting the resistance movement.

On March 14, after the resistance movement’s demand for an urgent cabinet session over the tribunal’s crisis was rejected, 11 ministers led by Hezbollah and its allies resigned which led to the collapse of Lebanon’s unity government.