Posted By Emma Sabry 

The UN Security Council voted on Wednesday to set up an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq al-Hariri in a move hailed and at the same time condemned in deeply-divided Lebanon.

The legally binding resolution was adopted by 10 of the Security Council’s 15 members, with veto-wielding Russia and China as well as non-permanent members South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar abstaining. The tribunal, which will be held in an undetermined "neutral" location, is not likely to be up and running for several months at least and it is not clear how it will operate if it has no suspects to try. 

However, the UN move is widely seen as a factor that could further divide Lebanese people. 

Right after the vote, Hariri supporters celebrated in Beirut, expressing hope that the court will uncover the truth of the assassination of the popular billionaire prime minister. "It is an historic moment ... the court is not about vendettas, but about justice for all," said Hariri's MP son Saad, leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority. 

But the move raises fears that the tribunal could cause more instability in Lebanon, currently facing a political crisis, an ongoing deadly standoff between the army and a rebel group, and still healing from last summer’s war between Israel and the resistance movement Hezbollah. 

Setting up the Hariri court without consensus "raises serious concern for security and stability,” said Omar Neshabi, writing in Lebanon’s pro-opposition al-Akhbar newspaper. 

The assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, who was killed with 22 other people in a huge truck bombing in Beirut in February 2005, sparked massive domestic and international protests that forced Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon. An uncompleted UN inquiry implicated Damascus and its allies in Lebanon in the attack. The Syrian government, which denies any involvement, says that a tribual to try suspects in Hariri's assassination will be a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and that it could plunge the country into more instability. 

The Hariri court has been at the center of a deep political split between anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and others close to Damascus, including Hezbollah, who say that the court would be used as a political tool by the United States. The months-old political crisis pushed the opposition to withdraw six ministers from the cabinet in November and attempt to topple the Beirut government, which is controlled by an anti-Syrian coalition and backed by Western states.

The paralyzed government has been trying to get the parliament to vote for the tribunal, but its attempts have been blocked by the opposition. Now the UN resolution gives the parliament until June 10 to back the tribunal, after which a 2006 agreement between the Lebanese cabinet and the United Nations to establish the court will come into force. 

Reacting to Wednesday’s vote, Syria's UN envoy Bashar Jaafari said that the UN resolution is “definitely” against the “interests of the Lebanese people and Lebanon as a whole." 

But Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said that the trial would allow for "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" to be revealed, saying that the court is "not directed against anyone and especially not sister Syria." 

This position was reiterated by the six co-sponsors of the UN resolution; the United States, Britain, France, Belgium, Slovakia, and Italy. 

However, other nations expressed concern about interfering in an already unstable situation. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin objected to the reference in the resolution to Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, used in cases of threats to international peace and security. He also called the resolution "dubious from the standpoint of international law" as it bypasses the requirements of Lebanon's constitutional process. 

Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who had refused to call parliament to for the court, also said that the Security Council had ignored the country's constitution in voting to set up the tribunal, and overlooked a need for Lebanese consensus on the court. "You have picked internationalization instead of the state," Berri, a leading member of the opposition, said in a brief statement.

Damascus also warned that the Security Council's move could be used by the United States to step up pressure against Syria. "This is an Israeli-American resolution par excellence, which cannot be interpreted as the will of the international community, as the strong divisions on the Security Council demonstrated," Syria's official Tishrin newspaper said. 

This view was echoed in several Lebanese newspapers on Thursday. "New York has imposed the tribunal on Lebanon ... who will impose harmony between the Lebanese?" demanded pro-Syrian newspaper As Safir.

©  EsinIslam.Com

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