Lebanese leaders approve tribunal on assassination

BEIRUT, Lebanon – The U.S.-backed government on Saturday approved an international tribunal for suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, overriding the objections of Hezbollah amid a political crisis that threatens to spin Lebanon into violence.

Attempts to reach a last-minute compromise between the government and the pro-Syrian camp, led by Hezbollah, failed Saturday as the Cabinet moved forward with its meeting on the U.N-created court.

Lebanon’s Syria-allied president denounced the vote as did Hezbollah officials, who warned that the Shiite Muslim militant group would go ahead with threatened mass street protests seeking to force the government from power.

The tribunal is key in the struggle between allies and opponents of Syria, which dominated its neighbor for nearly three decades until international pressure forced it to withdraw its troops last year. Anti-Syrian forces – mainly Christians and Sunni Muslims – dominate parliament and the Cabinet, but are facing growing resistance from the mainly Shiite pro-Syrian camp.

The political crisis became potentially explosive this week with the assassination of an anti-Syrian politician, raising worries of more violence that could tear the country apart along its fragile sectarian seams.

Earlier Saturday, two key anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians met with Parliament Speaker Nabil Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and a Syria supporter, in an apparent attempt at a compromise.

U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora offered to put off the Cabinet vote for several days if six pro-Hezbollah ministers who quit the Cabinet earlier this month return.

But with Hezbollah demanding that the government be changed to give it and its allies more power, the bid failed, and the Cabinet meeting approved a U.N. draft for the tribunal.

The Cabinet approval “puts the opposition before its options to confront the government. The time and the place will be decided,” Sheik Hassan Ezzeddine, a senior Hezbollah official, said after the vote when asked if Hezbollah would carry out its threat to try to topple Saniora with mass demonstrations.

In the eyes of Hezbollah, the approval of the tribunal amounted to a rejection of its demands for more seats on the Cabinet, and Saniora’s foes contend his administration is unconstitutional because it does not represent all of Lebanon’s main communities.