Lebanon Can Bypass Hezbollah Budget Objection on Hariri Probe, Hamdan Says
Lebanon’s government will still be able to pass this year’s budget, even if the Shiite Hezbollah movement and its allies object to an article that allocates funds for a United Nations court investigating the killing of former premier Rafiq Hariri, a senior official said.
“The budget will pass,” said Ali Hamdan, adviser and spokesman to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in an interview today. “The article, like many other articles in the past, can be dropped.” He said the issue is likely to become “a matter of bargaining within parliament.”
Lebanon is obliged to pay 49 percent of the costs of the UN Tribunal investigating Hariri’s killing. Should funding be insufficient, U.N. resolution 1757, which created the court, stipulates that the Secretary General and the Security Council can explore alternate means of financing.
Parliament’s Budget and Finance Commission failed last week to approve that budget item. The secretary-general of the Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, said in July that the tribunal was an “Israeli project” and a plot against his group. He said some Hezbollah members may be indicted.
The risk of such charges being brought has fueled a crisis in Lebanon’s national unity government. The administration is led by Western-backed Prime Minister Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain premier, and also includes Hezbollah and its allies, who say indictment of group members may plunge Lebanon back into sectarian strife. A 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
Budget Delays
Political disputes have blocked parliamentary ratification of a budget in Lebanon for the past five years.
Hezbollah has called for the abolition of the UN tribunal, questioning its independence and constitutional mandate. It has also pressed for the detention and trial of false witnesses that it says misled the initial investigation and wrongly pointed the finger at Syria and its allies in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, for Hariri’s killing.
“Hezbollah’s position is known with regard to this issue and we won’t approve the funding,” the group’s spokesman Ibrahim el-Moussawi said in an interview today.
Saad Hariri has rejected demands to end the tribunal. “All the intimidation and threats will not affect our full commitment to the international tribunal,” his Future movement said in a statement this week.
The tribunal in April last year ordered the release of four Lebanese pro-Syrian generals held in connection with Hariri’s killing, saying there wasn’t sufficient evidence to continue their detention, after some witnesses changed or retracted their statements.
Beirut Protests
Syria and Hezbollah have denied any role in the killing, which sparked a wave of protests in Beirut that led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country in 2005 after a 29- year presence.
The tribunal’s president, Antonio Cassese, told the Beirut- based Daily Star newspaper in May that an indictment was likely to be filed between September and December.
In December 2005, Lebanon’s government asked the UN to set up a tribunal to try those responsible for the killing of Hariri and 22 others by a roadside bomb in February that year.
“Parliament at large, the general assembly, will decide whatever it wants when it votes on the budget,” said Mohamad Chatah, Hariri’s chief political adviser, in a phone interview today. “It can vote any item in or out, therefore the issue of the tribunal’s funding may yet to be approved by parliament when it reaches the floor.”
The budget is likely to be discussed in parliament as soon as the third week of October, Hamdan said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Massoud A. Derhally in Beirut, Lebanon at mderhally@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net.
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