UN SAID TO NAME HEZBOLLAH AIDES AS SUSPECTS IN HARIRI MURDER

A special United Nations tribunal has reportedly issued arrest warrants Thursday for four Hezbollah members in the 2005 murder of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

The disclosure was made on Thursday in Beirut by officials in the office of Mr. Hariri’s son, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri. An announcement by UN officials was expected soon.

Rafik Hariri was killed with 22 others on February 14, 2005, when a massive blast struck his motorcade in a seafront district of Beirut. Mr. Hariri, who was 60 when he was killed, headed five Lebanese governments between the years 1992 to 1998 and 2000 to 2004, when he stepped down from leadership.

Lebanese politicians not affiliated with Hezbollah had long suspected that the murders had been carried out by Hezbollah members acting on the orders of their patrons, Iran and Syria. As prime minister, Mr. Hariri – who was close to Saudi Arabia – rarely got along with with Syria, and especially its president, Bashar Al Assad.

Mr. Hariri, who built his personal fortune in the construction industry by doing business in Saudi Arabia, was widely credited with rebuilding Lebanon – and especially its capital city of Beirut – in the aftermath of the country’s 15-year civil war. That war ended in 1990 through robust mediation by Saudi Arabia. Various warring factions signed the Taif Accords, under which they agreed to cese hostilities and to adhere to Lebanon’s confessional political traditions.

Those traditions call for the presidency to be held by a Christian maronite; the prime ministership by a Sunni Muslim; and the speakership of parliament by a Shia Muslim. The social and political contracts have held so far, but the Hezbollah are a Shia organization and the worry is that their sectarian politics might override Lebanon’s social and political traditions.

The arrest warrants disclosed by Saad Hariri’s office on Thursday for the murder suspects were issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), an international body established by the UN for the prosecution under Lebanese law of those responsible for the assassination of Mr. Hariri. The initial reaction of political observers was that Syria and Iran were the “unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators.”

Because of Hezbollah’s close ties to Iran and Syria – countries that the United States accuses of state-sponsored terrorism – the arrest warrants are certain to generate fresh political turbulence in the region. There is already significant tension between US-backed Israel and Hezbollah, and the Syrian regime has faced mounting protests by pro-democracy demonstrators. The Assad government has hit back by killing unarmed protestors.

Officials say that Lebanon now has 30 days to serve out the arrest warrants. If the suspects are not arrested within that period, the STL will then make public the indictment and summon the suspects to appear before a court, AFP reported.

Serving the arrest warrants may be particularly problematic for the Lebanese government because it is controlled by Hezbollah. The United Nations does not have an enforcement mechanism – at least, not one that might be especially effective in the politically contentious arena of Lebanese sectarian politics.

(Eman El-Shenawi, a writer at Al Arabiya English