Financial Times: Lebanon Closer to Crisis over Tribunal

Local Editor

The Financial Times said on Thursday that Lebanon is braced for another political crisis as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon appears to be heading towards indicting Hizbullah members.

The alleged involvement of so-called undisciplined Hizbullah members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination "is a perilous outcome for the country: the movement is now part of the coalition government led by Saad Hariri, the prime minister and son of the dead leader," the newspaper said.

"The tribunal apparently reached a conclusion that is the worse-case scenario, so at a minimum this is likely to cause a major government crisis," Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut said. "The government would be cooperating with an institution which others say is an "Israeli" agency."