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Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Monday he won't take part in any future government headed by a Hezbollah-backed candidate, raising the stakes in a crisis that many fear could descend into violence. Hariri made the announcement as President Michel Suleiman began two days of consultations with lawmakers over their choice of premier.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday was to address the political crisis gripping Lebanon as rival parties prepared for a fierce showdown on the choice of the country's next premier. Nasrallah was to give a televised speech at 1830 GMT on the latest developments in the country, his militant party said in a statement. The address comes hours before President Michel Sleiman kicks off talks with parliamentary group to appoint a new premier, after Hezbollah earlier this month brought down the unity government of Saudi- and US-backed Saad Hariri. The Shiite party, blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Washington, had...

Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on Friday his group was committed to support the Islamist movement Hezbollah ahead of parliamentary talks on Monday to pick a new prime minister. Jumblatt leads a bloc of 11 parliamentarians and his support is crucial to decide who forms the new government out of the two rivals: Hezbollah or the caretaker Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who said on Thursday he will seek the premiership. "I am announcing the right political stand...by assuring the steadfastness of the group (Progressive Socialist Party) alongside Syria and the resistance," he told a news conference. Resistance is a...

Hizbullah members and allied parties carried out a two-hour exercise early on Tuesday morning at 12 strategic points in Beirut, meant to show a potential first response to the commission findings surrounding the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai reported on Wednesday. Members of the Hizbullah and Amal Shi’ite movements participated in the drill, and were reportedly unarmed and wearing black shirts. Lebanese security officials confirmed the gatherings, which dispersed by late morning and appeared to be a show of force in the hours after a long-awaited indictment was submitted on Monday to the International...

The UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon says its prosecutor has issued indictments for the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The names of the accused remain confidential for now, but are widely believed to include members of the armed Shia group Hezbollah. A pre-trial judge now decides whether to issue warrants. Last week, Hezbollah and its allies brought down Lebanon's government in a dispute over the tribunal. The group, which denies any role in the killing, has dismissed the tribunal as a US and Israeli plot that is designed to discredit it. It has demanded that Lebanon cease...

Lebanese Labor Minister Boutros Harb has said that the UN investigation on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri results will be released Monday, Army Radio reported. A UN tribunal investigating the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is expected to accuse Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of giving the order to murder Hariri, according to a Saturday report by news website Newsmax. The report suggested that the investigative body will lay out evidence showing that the murder was committed by Iran's Quds force and their allies, Hizbullah in Lebanon. The order to murder Hariri was...

Mideast: Disguised as an indigenous political party, the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah has quit the Lebanese Cabinet, the latest step in its quest for an Islamofascist state on the border with Israel. Lebanon's very own Valentine's Day massacre, the February 2005 car bomb explosion that killed former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others, has ever since been a central factor in Lebanese politics, as is the investigation into who did it. A U.N.-backed commission has been digging into the assassination and is expected to soon release its conclusions in a report widely expected to name members of Hezbollah, the...

Nobody wanted it. Few expected it. Many are worried it will lead to armed confrontation in the streets of Beirut. The fall of the government of Prime Minister Said Hariri marks a significant escalation by Hezbollah in their effort to take control of Lebanon; it also ratchets up tensions between Sunnis and Shias that could explode into violence if not checked. Eleven opposition cabinet ministers resigned on Wednesday, constitutionally causing the government’s collapse. At issue: the Special Tribunal Lebanon’s (STL) imminent announcement of indictments in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. It is widely expected that...

From the point of view of Iran and its Lebanese terrorist puppet, Hezb'allah, the timing of the collapse of Lebanon's government couldn't have been more exquisite.  For President Obama, the in-your-face timing arranged by the mullahs in Tehran dramatically underscored a U.S. foreign-policy disaster in the Middle East. Just as Obama was meeting at the White House with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Hezb'allah pulled the plug on Hariri's coalition government with the collective resignation of Hezb'allah's cabinet ministers.   Blindsided by Hezb'allah, Hariri made a quick get-away from Washington and flew back to Beirut to face a major political crisis and...

Just crossing the wires in Lebanon's media outlets. 5:10pm Bassil: We announce our resignation from government and we turn to the prime minister to speed up the formation of a new Cabinet.

BEIRUT – The Islamic militant group Hezbollah and its allies plan to resign from the Lebanese Cabinet and topple the government on Wednesday over tensions stemming from the international investigation of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, officials said.

The Islamic militant group Hezbollah and its allies plan to resign from the Lebanese Cabinet on Wednesday, a move that would likely topple the government over tensions stemming from the international investigation into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, officials said. Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalifeh told Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV that ministers were planning to resign in the afternoon unless Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri - the son of the slain leader - agrees to their demand to convene an urgent Cabinet meeting over the tribunal crisis.

The UN-backed tribunal into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri has finished its investigation after six years and publishing the indictment is all that remains, London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported Monday. According to the report, prosecutor Daniel Bellemare reached a final decision that will be very hard to appeal. Bellemare is the only person that knows when the verdict will be published, the report claimed. Last week, it was reported that Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri would ask the UN tribunal to stop its investigation and leave the country.

Russia will be giving Lebanon a free, unconditional gift of arms and military supplies to strengthen the Lebanese army, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri this week. The gift will include six Mi-24 attack helicopters, 31 T-72 tanks, 36 130-millimeter artillery pieces and 500,000 shells to be used by existing Lebanese artillery.

e-mail this to a friend printable version » 11/16/2010 19:06LEBANONDespite attacks, Patriarch Sfeir renews his support for international tribunalTensions are rising in Lebanon over UN-backed special tribunal after rumours suggest some Hizbollah figures could be indicted in Hariri bombing. Hizbollah leader warns his movement will cut off the hands of anyone who tries to get at its members. Beirut (AsiaNews) – Tensions are still rising over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), an international court set up under the auspices of the United Nations to investigate and try the people accused of masterminding and carrying out a terrorist attack...

No one could have imagined that within five years, Lebanon’s young PM would become a slave of his father’s murderers. No one, that is, aside from his father’s murderers. Lebanon is a sad and desperate place. And its disastrous fate is personified today by its prime minister. All who claim to love freedom, democracy, human rights and dignity should take note of Sa'ad Hariri’s fate. They should recognize that his predicament is a testament to their failure to stand up for the ideals they say they champion. All those who say they seek a Middle East that is friendly to...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Israel informed the United Nations Friday that it reserves the right to use force to stop a new aid flotilla from reaching the blockaded Gaza Strip. In a letter sent to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Israel's UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said the stated intention of the Bolivian-flagged all-women cargo ship Mariam "is to violate the existing naval blockade of Gaza." She added that Israel also had information that another vessel, the Naji al-Ali, plans to leave from a Lebanese port with the aim of violating the blockade. "Israel reserves its right under international law to use...

Lebanon expects to receive additional U.S. assistance to develop its military and security forces. Lebanese officials said the United States has pledged to lead an international effort to bolster Beirut's military and security forces. They said U.S. weapons began to flow to Lebanon in 2010 and could intensify over the next few months. "The U.S. military is convinced that the Lebanese army is capable of controlling stability in Lebanon," Ghassan Al Shibli, a researcher at the Washington-based Rand Corp., said. Officials said the Obama administration has concluded that U.S. aid should not be blocked by Hizbullah's domination of the government...

BEIRUT – A Hezbollah government minister refused Friday to confirm or deny Israeli allegations that the militant Lebanese group has acquired Scud missiles. In the first Hezbollah comment on the Israeli charges, Minister Hussein Haj Hassan said the group was always arming and preparing itself but, "what we have is not their business." Israeli defense officials have said they believe Hezbollah has obtained Scud missiles capable of hitting targets anywhere in Israel. Israel's President Shimon Peres earlier this week directly accused Damascus of providing the weapons. Israel has not offered proof to back up the claim, and Syria's Foreign Ministry...

We could not have guessed which would be the first country to make peace with Israel, but we always knew which country would be second: Lebanon. Meanwhile, Egypt signed an agreement, Jordan followed and Palestine signed a deal that collapsed, but either it or Syria will be next. Lebanon was pushed to the bottom of the list. Whoever doubts this can pull out of the archives the clear-cut statement made by the previous Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora. The man who conducted a bitter duel with Hezbollah, and whose power diminished as a result of the Second Lebanon War,...