July 28, 2010 - Now Lebanon - Moqdad: STL is another crime compounding Hariri’s assassination

Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Ali Moqdad told NBN television on Wednesday that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is another crime compounding the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“Since Hariri was assassinated, we were afraid the STL would be politicized,” he said, adding, “We knew from the beginning that the Hariri killing would shake the entire region, and not just Lebanon.”

Moqdad also said that Israel and the US are the primary benefactors of the Rafik Hariri assassination.

Tension has increased after Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah questioned the credibility of the STL earlier in July, calling it an Israeli project designed to create sectarian conflict in the country.

Last Thursday, Nasrallah claimed Hezbollah members would be named in the tribunal’s pending indictment.

Moqdad said he welcomes the upcoming visits of Arab leaders to Lebanon, which include Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani’s trips on Friday.

He added that he supports “any Arab effort to contain problems that might occur in Lebanon because of the STL’s indictment.”