Word: lebanon
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...potentially explosive murder investigation which has gripped the Middle East for four years moves from Lebanon to the Netherlands today with the launch of a landmark international tribunal. The tribunal, established under the auspices of the United Nations, will judge the assassins of Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister who died in a truck bomb explosion in February 2005, and of several anti-Syrian politicians and journalists murdered subsequently. ?After four years of waiting and desperately fighting all kinds of resistance (to the tribunal?s formation) we have finally won this battle for truth and justice,? Marwan...
...burning question is whether top Syrian officials will be called before the tribunal. Syria, which politically controlled Lebanon at the time of Hariri?s death, remains the chief suspect in the murder. An initial report by a UN commission, which began investigating Hariri?s death in 2005, implicated several senior Syrian and Lebanese officials. Subsequent reports, however, have been scant on detail, and it remains unknown what evidence the commission has amassed. Daniel Bellemare, the head of the UN commission for the past year, is expected to continue the investigation when he takes up the role on March...
...closes in on the assassins, many in Lebanon are bracing for more instability. Lebanon already faces a tense period in the months leading to knife-edge parliamentary elections scheduled for June 7. ?The establishment of the tribunal faced many difficulties, and I do think that as we get closer to the killers we might have more trouble,? Hamade said...
...while leaders of the two groups are holding reconciliation talks in Cairo this week with a view toward creating a unity government that can oversee the rebuilding of Gaza with international aid, in Lebanon the two sides are preparing for confrontation. Fatah officials accuse Hamas of secretly plotting a takeover of the camps in Lebanon in the same way that the movement took control of Gaza in 2007. Hamas officials say they have no military wing in Lebanon, but last month, a fight broke out in Shatila when Fatah men discovered Hamas moving weapons into the camp. In a different...
...Victory in Lebanon would give Hamas a significant new strategic advantage. By agreement of the Arab League, Palestinian camps lie outside the jurisdiction of the Lebanese state, so control of the camps would allow Hamas to train and operate largely without interference from Israel or any Arab states. Moreover, unlike in the Gaza Strip, which is surrounded by an Israeli blockade, in Lebanon Hamas could easily receive weapons by sea, by land from Syria or with help from Hizballah. And a Hamas victory in Lebanon could be the beginning of the end of Fatah. "We already lost Jordan and Syria...