Hezbollah says UN indictment would be 'act of aggression'

Fri, 03 Dec 2010

Beirut - Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naem Kassem said Friday an indictment of his group in the 2005 killing of former premier Rafik Hariri by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) would be "an act of aggression against Hezbollah and Lebanon."

In a statement issued by the party, Kassem said an indictment by the STL which is probing the assassination would not be based on "real evidence," but would be politicized.

"We are not scared or worried," Kassem insisted, while asking, "why isn't Israel a suspect?"

Kassem said his party is still counting on the Saudi-Syrian efforts to contain the tension in Lebanon regarding the STL.

"There are reasonable steps for a solution in Lebanon and we are still betting on the success of Saudi-Syrian efforts," Kassem added.

In July, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Beirut in a bid to defuse the tensions over the STL inquiry.

The STL is allegedly set to implicate high-ranking members of the Hezbollah in the killing.

Hezbollah has accused the tribunal of being part of a US-Israeli plot and said Tel Aviv had infiltrated the party's telecommunications network.

In a speech on November 11, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said that Hezbollah will "cut off the hand" of anyone who tries to arrest any of its members in the case.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/356470,would-be-act-aggression.html.