BEIRUT — The U.S. offered strong support for Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri as his fragile government collapsed Wednesday over an investigation into the assassination of the former prime minister, his father.
Eleven ministers close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah-led opposition withdrew from Hariri’s Cabinet as the prime minister was in Washington speaking with President Barack Obama before he left for Tucson to attend a memorial service for victims of last week’s mass shooting there.
The move plunged Lebanon into a new period of uncertainty, dissolving a political status quo that has prevailed since a May 2008 agreement ended fighting between the country’s pro-Western political alliance and a camp backed by Syria and Iran.
Tribunal probes death
Hezbollah, the powerful Shiite Muslim political organization and militia, and its Shiite and Christian allies pulled out of the government after months of negotiations brokered by Saudi Arabia and Syria failed to produce a compromise over the government’s stance on the investigation.
A special tribunal has been examining the 2005 assassination of the Hariri’s father, Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister and leader of the country’s Sunni community.
The tribunal is expected to accuse members of Hezbollah of complicity in the killing, prompting the group to warn that it would refuse to hand over any suspects or allow its name to be tarnished. Hezbollah also has demanded that Saad Hariri and his allies disavow the tribunal, a step the prime minister was apparently unwilling to take.
Both sides accused each other of being foreign dupes but also said they were open to further discussions.
At an appearance in Doha, the capital of the Arabian Peninsula nation of Qatar, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton voiced strong support for the special tribunal, which has been plagued with leaks and accused by Hezbollah of being a tool for Western interests.
Nation’s mood darkens
The political crisis darkened the mood in Lebanon, a country of 4 million that has been enjoying a stretch of relative peace and economic prosperity. The army deployed extra troops throughout Beirut in case of possible skirmishes between young Sunni and Shiite men.
“The efforts by the Hezbollah-led coalition to collapse the Lebanese government only demonstrate their own fear and determination to block the government’s ability to conduct its business and advance the aspirations of all of the Lebanese people,” the White House said in a statement.
However, another senior U.S. official, traveling in Qatar with Clinton, noted that Hezbollah and its allies so far have been using only legal means to try to bring down the government.
