Israel Matzav

Hariri tribunal: Nasrallah's a liar

You will recall that a month ago, Hezbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah made a dramatic speech on Lebanese television in which he accused Israel of being behind the murder of Lebanese President Rafik Hariri, the father of the current Lebanese President Sa'ad Hariri. This actually comes as a little bit of a surprise to me: The special tribunal looking into Hariri's murder doesn't believe Nasrallah.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare does not seriously take revelations made by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in the assassination case of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, Ad-Diyar newspaper reported Monday.

"Nothing suggests that the International Tribunal and officials working for it may reconsider the wrong path of international investigation" into Hariri's assassination, Ad-Diyar said.

It owed this to U.S. and Israel "who did not abandon the game of using politics in the Tribunal."

"Bellemare does not seem to seriously take what Nasrallah disclosed regarding evidence and data accusing Israel of assassinating Hariri," Ad-Diyar wrote.

Maybe Bellemare actually knows Nasrallah is lying. At the time, Michael Totten and Michael Young both said that it was highly unlikely that Israel had anything to do with Hariri's murder. It seems that Bellemare is a lot more independent and a lot straighter shooter than many of us here in Israel gave him credit for being.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:36 PM