Divisions deepen in Lebanon

With Hizbollah controlling a veto on the ruling coalition's decisions, the impasse will require a major compromise, but neither side appeared willing to back down.

Facing the country's worst political crisis in more than two years, President Michel Suleiman returned from a state trip to Mexico yesterday to immediately begin consultations with both sides.

Hizbollah's declaration came after the prime minister, Saad Hariri, insisted that the UN's Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) into his father's death proceed. With Hizbollah controlling a veto on cabinet decisions, the impasse will require a major compromise to avoid further tensions, but neither side appeared willing to back down.

The unity government formed after last year's elections granted Hizbollah and its allies enough seats in the cabinet to quash major legislation, so the opposition is capable of preventing additional funding requests. "Hizbollah and its allies have decided to oppose any financing of the tribunal," Ghaleb Abu Zaynab, a Hizbollah political deputy, told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday. Lebanon had agreed to pay 49 per cent of the US$50 million (Dh184m) cost of the tribunal, which is rumoured to be planning to indict Hizbollah members for the killing. The group strongly denies involvement, but admits that its members are likely to be accused.

After a series of press conferences and statements over the past two months alleging that the STL is basing its evidence on false testimony and questionable intelligence, Hizbollah's political representatives said the group would oppose new funding for a process they claim has been manipulated by Israel and the United States to spread civil strife in Lebanon. "How can we finance a tribunal that has turned into an Israeli-American tool attempting to sow discord in the country," Mr Abu Zaynab said. "We do not want Lebanon to fall victim to US interests in the region."

Mr Hariri once accused Syria of carrying out the assassination, but has recently admitted that Damascus was unfairly accused. He has repeatedly called for calm and for support of the international effort to find justice. Hizbollah and its allies managed last week to stymie a parliamentary committee's attempt to approve new money for the tribunal despite protests by Mr Hariri and his supporters that the STL is independently investigating the crime without political interference. Although it is possible for other donor countries to make up any shortfall should Lebanon fail to approve the funding, such a move would present Lebanon with a host of political issues, not the least of which would be the potential collapse of Mr Hariri's cabinet should Hizbollah and its allies resign.

A similar battle over the establishment of the STL led to the Shiite group leaving the previous government of the former prime minister, Fuad Sinora, in 2006. That move thrust Lebanon into almost two years of political disarray that frequently devolved into violent clashes mainly between supporters of the government, primarily Christians and Sunni Muslims, and the primarily Shiite Hizbollah and its allies.