Turkey, Qatar, Hezbollah talk Lebanon

Turkish and Qatari foreign ministers have met Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah for talks on a possible solution to the political crisis in Lebanon.

“The [Tuesday] meeting addressed the current political crisis in Lebanon, notably the issue of Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) and the new government,” al-Manar television reported on Wednesday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jaber al-Thani, arrived in Beirut on Tuesday to conduct shuttle diplomacy among Lebanese leaders.

Qatari-Turkish efforts come at a time when Saudi Arabia has decided to pull out of mediation talks on creating a new Lebanese government.

Lebanon is in a political standoff after Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government collapsed last week when 11 Hezbollah-affiliated ministers resigned in a dispute over the US-backed STL probing the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.

Hariri and over 20 other people were assassinated on February 14, 2005, when explosives equivalent to around 1,000 kilograms of TNT were detonated in downtown Beirut.

The Washington-sponsored STL was set up some two years later to look into the deadly incident.

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

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