August 10, 2010 - ILoubnan - Hezbollah's Hariri accusations are 'ridiculous', Israel says

Israel on Tuesday dismissed as "ridiculous" Hezbollah claims to have acquired Israeli footage implicating the Jewish state in the murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Lebanese Shiite militia group, on Monday unveiled footage allegedly intercepted from Israeli surveillance planes of the site where Hariri was killed in a bombing in February 2005. "Everyone in the world knows, even the Lebanese, that Nasrallah's accusations are ridiculous," said a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It was clear that the accusations were "coming from the pressure on (Nasrallah) over the international community's suspicions about Hezbollah's involvement in Hariri's murder," he said. Several undated clips, which were broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television, showed aerial views of the coastline off mainly Sunni west Beirut on various dates before the Hariri assassination.

"Such footage generally comes as the first leg of the execution of an operation," Nasrallah said, while admitting the images were not conclusive. Nasrallah, who has accused Israel of the bombing on February 14, 2005 which killed Hariri and 22 others, said the footage was intercepted from Israeli
surveillance aircraft.

Hezbollah is facing increasing pressure as a UN tribunal looking into the assassination appears set to indict several members of the Shiite militia. Any indictment is likely to be made by the end of the year.
The Hariri assassination triggered an international outcry and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in April 2005 after a deployment of almost three decades.

The murder has been widely blamed on Syria but Damascus has consistently denied involvement.