The March 14 forces vowed on Wednesday to confront alleged attempts by the new Lebanese cabinet to take Lebanon back to the era of Syrian hegemony and integrate the country’s institutions into Hizbullah’s statelet.
The general-secretariat of the coalition said after its weekly meeting that it would prevent Premier Najib Miqati’s government to “return Lebanon to the dark stage that the Cedar Revolution liberated” after ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination in February 2005.
Full StoryThe new cabinet’s policy statement is expected to remain committed to some of the major clauses of Saad Hariri’s ministerial statement including the right of "Lebanon, its government, its people, its army and its resistance" to liberate all Lebanese territory.
An Nahar daily said Wednesday that Najib Miqati’s new cabinet would also commit itself to international resolutions and the protocol signed between the Lebanese government and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that will try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins.
Full StoryThe indictment in the probe into the 2005 killing of former Premier Rafik Hariri will be issued later in the month or in early July, a judicial source at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said.
The source told al-Liwaa newspaper published Monday that the indictment will be issued between June 20 and July 5. He did not give further details.
Full StoryThe March 8 leadership has expressed fear that the U.S. would impose sanctions on Lebanese officials if the new cabinet did not abide by U.S. conditions, al-Liwaa daily reported Tuesday.
The newspaper quoted informed sources as saying that the U.S. continues to veto an attempt to put the justice ministry within the share of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun in the government.
Full StoryLebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said that the cabinet crisis would be solved only if some blocs reviewed their stances and formed a new parliamentary majority.
“There is no possibility to end the crisis unless some parliamentary blocs reviewed their stances and formed a new majority that quickly works on holding things together by forming a cabinet and filling the current void,” Geagea told the Saudi Okaz daily published Saturday.
Full StorySyria was likely behind the assassination of MP Gebran Tueni in 2005, which was aimed at silencing his caustic remarks against the regime of President Bashar Assad, stated a leaked U.S. Embassy cable dated December 19, 2005, published exclusively in al-Jumhuriya newspaper on Wednesday.
The WikiLeaks cable added that the assassination was also a message to the Lebanese opposition that “no one can protect them.”
Full StorySpecial Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare’s amended indictment includes names of Syrian officials involved in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination, said the French daily Le Figaro.
According to the article written by George Malbrunot, French intelligence agencies provided the STL with information about Syria’s involvement in the murder.
Full StorySpecial Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has reached new leads in his investigation that accuses Syrian officials of involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination, sources in The Hague told Naharnet.
They said Bellemare put his new information in the amended indictment that he filed to pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen last week.
Full StorySpecial Tribunal for Lebanon spokesperson Marten Youssef has reiterated that the court hasn’t set a maximum time limit for judge Daniel Fransen to confirm the indictment in ex-premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case.
STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare filed an amended indictment on Friday based on further evidence in the probe into the 2005 killing of Hariri, the second such amendment since the first indictment filed in January.
Full StoryThe Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Daniel Bellemare, filed an amended indictment on Friday, replacing the indictment of March 11, 2011, to include substantive new elements unavailable until recently.
The Prosecutor does not intend to make further amendments to the indictment, unless ordered to do so by the Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen, said the STL press office in a statement on Friday.
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