August 24, 2010 - Daily Star - Hariri warns rhetoric against STL will not halt 'course of justice'

Premier refuses to get dragged into domestic disputes
By Elias Sakr

BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed Monday that provocative rhetoric aimed against the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) investigating his father’s murder would not halt the course of justice.


“Statements will not abolish the truth and regardless of the extent of provocative rhetoric and threats, the course of justice will not stop,” he said during an iftar at his Qoreitem residence.


“When we examine the magnitude of campaigns that were launched against the STL and the number of media talk shows and programs as well as speeches being made, we almost think that [Rafik Hariri’s]’s case is over but the truth is that the case still lives … like it was yesterday,” Hariri added.


Hizbullah officials and the party’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah have dismissed the STL as an Israeli project and stress their refusal to cooperate with the UN-backed court.


Tensions over the UN probe rose following Western reports that the STL’s indictment would accuse rogue Hizbullah members of involvement in former Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder.


However, Hariri reiterated that he would not get involved in domestic debates over the STL with any party as he called on his political foes to commit to a calm rhetoric.


“I will continue to insist that regardless of the high pitched rhetoric aimed against this home or martyr Premier Rafik Hariri or former Premier Fouad Siniora or the STL, I will not be dragged to any dispute with any individual over these issues,” Hariri said, adding that the “provocative and threatening rhetoric” that had been adopted since 2005 failed to resolve disputed issues which were only solved through dialogue.



“For weeks, we have been stressing the need to commit to calm and to stop resorting to misinformation but unfortunately our calls were not heeded,” Hariri said.


The premier added that political bickering would prevent the Cabinet from addressing the Lebanese people basic needs and from implementing reforms to the country’s infrastructure including the water, electricity and transportation sectors.


On Sunday, Hariri held separate talks with Nasrallah’s political aide Hussein Khalil and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt.


Commenting on his talks with Hariri, Jumblatt said the meeting was “positive and excellent” and stressed the premier’s emphasis on dialogue to preserve political calm in line with the Saudi-Syrian rapprochement.


Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz and Syrian President Bashar Assad held a tripartite summit with President Michel Sleiman during a visit to Lebanon last month aimed at easing mounting tensions over the STL.


On another note, Hariri headed a meeting of the Future Movement’s politburo Monday during which administrative appointments were made to the movement’s regional branches as well as its different educational, industrial, economic and sports sectors.