It is decision time for Hezbollah chief

Decisions …Decisions …

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is facing tough decisions this week : Should he or shouldn’t he hand over the evidence that he claims to implicate Israel in the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former PM Rafik Hariri?

In his speech last week Nasrallah tried to hit 2 birds with one stone :

– Implicate Israel in the killing

– Discredit the Tribunal

His ultimate objective, according to observers is to to protect Hezbollah from any future indictments by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Something unexpected happened :

Immediately after Nasrallah made his speech Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare requested the Lebanese government authorities to provide any additional evidence in its possession.

According to observers Bellemare’s aim was to reinforce the credibility and independence of the Tribunal and the UN investigation commission that he heads.

Ali Hussein a Lebanese political observer told Ya Libnan: The monkey is now on Nasrallah’s back:

“If Nasrallah does not submit the evidence to the Lebanese authorities / The Tribunal , then all his attempts to tarnish the images of the Tribunal and the UN investigation commission will backfire on him.”

He added ” By the same token his charges against Israel will suffer similar consequences.”

Hussein added: “Naturally if the STL finds the evidence that Nasrallah will present is credible then both the STL and Hezbollah will look good and Lebanon will be spared a repeat of May7,2008…inshallah ( God willing) ”

On the other hand, Hussein said ” if the evidence ( and any follow up investigation ) is proven by the STL to be insufficient to change the indictments then Nasrallah will no longer be in any position to discredit the U.N. tribunal or the UN investigation team….”