Hezbollah MP Nawaf al Mousawi said last night during an interview with LBC’s Kalam el Nas program that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem informed him that a “deal was reached over the STL indictments , but did not give us any details.”
Other March 8 forces have quoted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as saying that Saudi King Abdullah had “pledged to postpone the announcement of the indictments in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) ,” according to An Nahar Saturday.
A former governmental authority told An Nahar however that Friday’s tripartite summit mainly focused on instilling calm in Lebanon, noting that “no one has the power to divert the tribunal’s course.”
Meanwhile, a prominent official told An Nahar: “All official, parliamentary, and diplomatic figures who greeted Assad and King Abdullah realized that the regional atmosphere is suitable to protect Lebanon and ease the tensions, which was translated in the summit’s closing statement.”
The statement focused on supporting the Doha and Taif accords, continuing the Lebanese national dialogue, committing against resorting to violence, and placing Lebanon’s interests above all others.
Assad was meanwhile reported as saying that his meetings with President Michel Suleiman and House Speaker Nabih Berri focused on calming the situation in Lebanon, describing the meetings as “excellent.”
Mousawi said last night that “postponing the indictments is not a solution , since all this will be doing is postponing the problem and not solving it.”
One informed source told Ya Libnan that one of the proposed solutions is for PM Hariri not to press the charges against the indicted Hezbollah members in order to spare the country a civil strife. The source added that “the damage to Hezbollah has already been done , and that Hariri should be satisfied by knowing who the killers were”. The source also added: “No power can stop the independent Tribunal from issuing the indictments , but the plaintiffs ( relatives of the slain PM ) have the power to ask the court not to press the charges. The big question is: Will Hariri supporters go along with such a decision ?
STL was formed by the United Nations security council to try the killers of the former Lebanese PM
A July 20 report in the pro-Syrian newspaper, Al Safir revealed that Hezbollah members will be indicted by STL in the assassination of Hariri.
In his speech on Thursday July 22, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah admitted that some of his party members would be named in the tribunal’s formal charges but stressed that he will reject the indictments.
Ya Libnan’s informed source concluded : “By admitting that some Hezbollah members will be indicted , Nasrallah is admitting that he is involved since no one within his party can commit such a horrific and complicated act without his full authorization.”
The pro-Syrian Al-Akhbar newspaper reported Saturday that the Syrian president told Saudi King Abdullah during their meeting in Damascus that the UN tribunal must be closed to protect Lebanon’s stability. This according to observers is of course impossible since no one has the power to close the tribunal. One observer told Ya Libnan: “Assad forget that the Tribunal is not based in Syria. “
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