Assad: Blaming Hezbollah for Hariri assassination will destroy Lebanon
Syrian President calls for an end to the murder investigation of the former Lebanese premier, claiming that it threatens Lebanon's stability. 'We will protect Hezbollah.'
By Jack Khoury and The Associated Press Tags: Israel news Lebanon Syria HezbollahSyrian President Bashar Assad called Saturday for an end to the International Court of Justice's investigation into the murder of former Lebanese President Rafik Hariri, claiming that the court has turned into an albatross for Lebanon and threatens its stability.
According to a report in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, Assad warned against pointing accusatory fingers at Hezbollah regarding the murder of Hariri and claimed that doing so could very well bring about the destruction of Lebanon.
 |
Saudi King Abdullah, right, and Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, look on during a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in Beirut on July 30, 2010. |
| Photo by: AP |
At a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah and Lebanese Premier Michel Suleiman, Assad said that the ICJ has pointed accusatory fingers at Syria in the past and almost caused a catastrophe for the entire Middle East.
Those claims turned out to be baseless, according to Assad. "We cannot accept the same script in regards to Hezbollah," Assad said, stating that Syria would protect Hezbollah.
The Friday meeting between the leaders of Syria and Saudi Arabia, once bitter rivals, was an unprecedented show of cooperation to prevent any breakout of violence in Lebanon if members of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah are indicted in the 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister.
The unusual joint visit by Syrian President Bashar Assad and Saudi King Abdullah underscored the depth of Arab concern over potential chaos in Lebanon. Many fear indictments could spark clashes between Lebanon's Sunnis and Shiites or that Hezbollah's nemesis Israel could be pulled into a conflict, causing wider regional turmoil.
The summit also consecrated the power-broker roles of Iran's ally Syria and pro-U.S. Saudi Arabia.
Washington has long tried to uproot Syrian influence in Lebanon. Instead, Damascus and Riyadh seem to have been forced into a fragile understanding, suggesting both see a greater interest in keeping Lebanon quiet after years of feuding over it.
The king and Assad walked side-by-side down the staircase from a Saudi jet at Beirut's airport and entered talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, President Michel Suleiman and other officials. The leader of Hezbollah, who rarely appears in public, did not take part, but Hezbollah Cabinet ministers were on hand.
It was Assad's first visit to Lebanon in eight years. The highway from Beirut's airport into the city was lined with Syrian and Saudi flags as well as banners with Assad's picture, proclaiming Welcome among your family, a stark contrast to the bitterness many Lebanese vented at Syria when it was forced to pull out its military in 2005, ending a nearly three-decade military hold on Lebanon.
Afterward, Assad gave reporters a thumbs-up and said it was an excellent summit as he left Lebanon's presidential palace.
"This is significant for two leaders who were fighting it out in Beirut just a few years ago," said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. "This indicates that they think this crisis is so big that they have to come themselves."
The crisis centers around the international tribunal investigating the assassination of Hariri's father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in a Valentine's Day truck bombing in 2005. Indictments are expected this year, and while the Netherlands-based tribunal has not said who will be charged, the leader of Hezbollah said last week he already knows that Hezbollah members will be among them.
That could spark riots between the Sunni supporters of Hariri and Shiites who largely back Hezbollah. The two sides have clashed before in their power struggle. In May 2008, Hezbollah gunmen swept through Sunni pro-government neighborhoods of Beirut, raising the threat of a new civil war. That crisis was resolved only after Arab countries mediated a truce and political compromise between the two sides that has tenuously held since.
Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia issued a joint statement after their meeting, urging all parties to put Lebanon's interests above all else and refrain from violence.
"Solidarity is a necessity, and standing side-by-side to confront challenges facing the Arab world," they said.
Many in Lebanon blame Syria for Rafik Hariri's death, charges that Damascus denies. The killing sparked massive anti-Syrian protests in Lebanon, dubbed the Cedar Revolution, leading to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon later the same year, ending almost three decades of Syrian domination.
The assassination also deepened a rift between Syria and Saudi Arabia, who each backed rival sides in the ensuing power struggle that nearly tore Lebanon apart: Syria backing a Hezbollah-led coalition and Saudi Arabia and the United States supporting Saad Hariri's Sunni-led coalition.
In recent years, however, Assad and Abdullah have repaired ties, and the joint visit was a sign of how far the rift has healed.
Assad rarely goes to Beirut. His last visit in 2002 was the first by a Syrian leader to the Lebanese capital in nearly three decades. Abdullah also was last in Lebanon in 2002, when he was crown prince.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's announcement on July 22 that members of his movement were expected to be indicted appeared to be an attempt to deflate any repercussions. A Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Moussawi told The Associated Press the group welcomed Friday's summit.
Nasrallah said his group will not turn over any of its members for trial. He said the tribunal has no credibility and is simply an Israeli plot.
Another factor behind the concerns in Lebanon is that any turmoil within this country could expand into conflict with Israel, which fought a month-long war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. Some in Israel fear Hezbollah could lash out at them if indicted. Some Lebanese worry the indictment could give Israel fodder to justify a new assault on the heavily armed guerrilla force.
"People here are reading this as, this is raising the risk of an Israeli war sometime in the future," Salem said.
The Saudi and Syrian pressure on their Lebanese allies doesn't guarantee an indictment against Hezbollah will go quietly, warned Fadia Kiwan, a political science professor at Beirut's St. Joseph University.
"This could ignite the streets," she said. "Politicians are now using a quiet language and trying to calm down the situation, but the problems are in the streets."
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
This is the Middle East !! In this case, the UN will step back !!
have destroyed lebanon
No matter what, Syria will never win a popularity contest in the United States. Not in a hundred years. I'm not sure what's going to happen to Mug's Brother-In-Law but I know that Mug died a few feet from the Headquarters of Syrian Intelligence. There are only two things that really matter to me here. The protection of Israel by the United States and putting the Midget in Iran on trial for incitement for Genocide by denying the Holocaust and calling for the end of Israel. Outside of the above, everything should fall neatly into place. An Uneasy Peace.
No matter what, Syria will never win a popularity contest in the United States. Not in a hundred years. I'm not sure what's going to happen to Mug's Brother-In-Law but I know that Mug died a few feet from the Headquarters of Syrian Intelligence. There are only two things that really matter to me here. The protection of Israel by the United States and putting the Midget in Iran on trial for incitement for Genocide by denying the Holocaust and calling for the end of Israel. Outside of the above, everything should fall neatly into place. An Uneasy Peace.
so let me see...hezbollah assasinates harriri, and now they want to blame israel ???? lol.....what a joke they are..cowards...why cant they finally stand up and say, yes, we did it and here's why...what cowards...always blaming israel for all their woes...they blame israel for "pushing" for a commission yet isn't this what all of the arab world did for the goldstone commission? these people will never change and the free western world had better come to terms with that....
Lebanon had a taste of that when the government previously discovered a clandestine, Iranian-built, private military communications system run by the Regime and Hezbollah which seriously violated Lebanon's sovereignty and then demanded its dismantling. That was like getting Nasrallah to undergo extractions of his Shia wisdom teeth by Sunni tongs without anaesthesia and Nasrallah flew into a rage, ordering his troops to display who's boss by quickly taking over and intimidating the Lebanese and killing whoever was necessary before Lebanon capitulated. Since that occured very quickly only a few died but the mask was already pulled off Nasrallah's bandit face to reveal a pathological liar who promised he would never raise one gun against Lebanon. I suppose in his lying ways he was correct as he raised many instead. When one ingests poison it's not good to stifle the violent vomitting that it induces to rid the body of the foreign matter and save itself. In this case, the poisonous, militant politics of Hezbollah has not only taken root in Lebanon's body but it has spread seriously to its governing brain. The International Court of Justice investigating this case should not stop at dusting Hariri's dead body for evidence and only finding Hezbollah culpable, they should now dust Nasrallah himself and they will discover the bloody fingerprints of Khamenei & Co., so the murder investigation should be then expanded further to Tehran.
Syria's president is a coward. He's saying don't bring the murderers to justice because Hizbullah might cause a lot of trouble. If Hizbullah causes trouble, Iran will pay. Enough fooling around with this rhetoric.
But, for now what choice does the current government have? They have a Shite majority and a trained well armed and funded hezbollah. Lebanon will be just one more failed Arab state.
Let's face it. The guy had a lot of enemies and no one knows who really killed him. His enemies are: Syria, Hizbollah, Alqaeda, Business leaders, even in Saudi Arabia he hads enemies. Hariri's death was also advantageous to Israel, EU, and US. Go figure who killed him.
Of all the Arab people, the Lebanese and the Palestinians are most suceptable to Israeli interference. As we have seen, there is a huge number of Israeli spies at work in both areas. These spies are local Arabs who have either been coerced or bribed by Israel into working for them. Because of Israels motivation and activity in these areas, any act which causes disharmonry among the local Arab people should always result in Israel as the prime suspect. This is Israels goal. When that goal is achieved, Israel should automatically be suspect. America will mindlessly echo Israels claims and certain American allies will follow suit. All the jibber jabber means nothing. Israel has been unable to defeat Hizbollah on the field. They will try anything to damage Hizbollah.
This is a recording.
That is why one of the Syrian generals in charge of Lebanon "commited" suicide in his office in order to cut the link between Hizballah and Syria. Remember that Syria had informers all over lebanon and Assad, his brother and brother in law were in the know. So Hizballah indictment will lead to Assad no question. That is why Assad is saying that he will protect Hizballah of course to protect himself. Let the truth be known and justice take its course. One more note, it was not only Hariri that was killed, Many more car bombs that killed many prominent people , I hope the court will tell everyone who did it.
Israel is nothing but a big terrorist, who is nuisance to the World, this terrorist country is being fund by USA. Israel is scared,the Cort is nothing but a game made by Israel, Israel will fall as punishment for doing terrorism on all over the World...
Israel has no realistic military option against Iran (with US disapproval), other than a nuclear strike which is unacceptable before the Iranians have a nuclear weapon and are ready to use it. The distance to Iranian nuclear installation is bigger than what the roundtrip range of the most capable Israeli plane can do without midair refueling. (Where?) The installations are also well dispersed and some locations may be unknown. Here is a completely different alternative for Israel: 1. Make peace with Syria. The Syrians offered it to Sharon and Netanyahu (following Hafez Assad strategic decision to make peace with Barak). Syria at peace will kill Hizballah by depriving them of access to weapons, and get Meshal and other Palestinian rejectionists out of there. Cost: The Golan. 2. Make peace with Lebanon. Papa Assad promised this will follow, and Syria can deliver. No more arms supply to Hizballah, and it will become a political party. 3. Make peace with the Palestinians. Abbas wants it, and Fayyad is establishing a state whether Israel likes it or not. Cost: Practically all the Territories except for some exchanges. 4. Make peace with all Arab states, as per the Saudi plan. 5. Iran, having been pushed out of the region, looks elsewhere to cause trouble. Iraq and Afghanistan will keep them and the US busy. Israel is no longer of central interest to them.
The Arab countries that you mentioned have no serious intentions of pursuing peace with Israel, otherwise Israel would have closed the deal long time ago. Israel concludes peace plans with serious Arabs only: Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, etc. Not with Syria or Saudi who pretend to assert peace while in reality are sponsors of terror and attempts to destroy Israel. It's interesting that the Saudi overnbment is on a mission to build mosques all over the USA. This comes when anyone wishing to build a church or synagogue in Saudi face execution. Insanity!
all the respect for hezbollah! u r our glory Israel killed hariri! and i'm so happy that lots of peoples started to know these facts! by days lots of new evidence points out towards Israel!
Hararri had pro-Israeli and pro-peace policies, it makes no sense for them to have killed him. Hararri would have profited more with Israel on his side. It does, however, make sense for the Syrians or Hezbollah to have killed Hararri... CONSIDERING HARRARI WAS OPENLY AGAINST THEM. Harrari led the anti-Syrian occupation revolution (CEDER revolution, only non-violent and successful revolution in the modern Arab world), his interest with Israel only came after his anger at Syria. Your comment is just a bunch of Islamic propaganda. The Lebanese know it was the Syrians and so do the non-radical Arab world rest of the world.
All Lebanese factions have one way or another blood on their fingers, but when it comes to Israel … its both hands are blooded. Lebanon has no choice but to let bygones be bygones.
could have blamed it on....on.....on...alquda..or hamasisatn...or hezbollah....why israel why didnt you kill them all.....
one another anywhere they want. That's no big deal. Right? This meeting is interesting because the weakest link is Arabia. Contrary to what has been spun by a few talking heads, both Syria and Lebanon are "in demand" politically speaking, and for them there's no way but up. Here's the catch, who needs S. Arabia?!
The Saudi's aren't known for brains but a lot o cash.
Hariri probably committed suicide.. given no one killed him
The problem don't lie in the streets if on Iran with their radical islamism and on lebanese politicians,the best specialists in the world on changing sides.
Bush's polcies were the only hope that democracy could have started , the more Obama loosen the grib the stronger the Dectatore in Syria gets . Assad & his gang of thugs need to go !!
Bush's polcies were the only hope that democracy could have started , the more Obama loosen the grib the stronger the Dectatore in Syria gets . Assad & his gang of thugs need to go !!
war is looming....
The UN will whitewash this.
As well as Lebanon's former PM
do you really know somethings that the rest of the world does not know, or you're just making things up as you go along? How do you KNOW Asad had anything with the Hariri assassination?! You read it somewhere, didn't you?
Mossad did it :) hariri was the allied of hezbollah so how can they kill their partner ? hariri was against israel and his partnership with Hezbollah was securing and cutting any foreigns hands who try to make a sunni-shiite conflict ! we will foil ur plot
That's why Hizbo murdered him
And Mossad must be salivating.
assad is the butcher of lebanon...