Lebanese government approves U.N. tribunal

updated 5:41 p.m. ET Nov. 25, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's political crisis moved toward a new danger point Saturday as the U.S.-backed government approved an international tribunal for suspects in the 2005 assassination of a former prime minister Rafik Hariri despite warnings of mass protests by its opponent Hezbollah.

Last-ditch attempts to reach a compromise between the government and the pro-Syrian camp, led by Hezbollah, failed Saturday as the Cabinet moved forward with its meeting on the U.N-created court.

The tribunal is a key bone of contention in the power struggle between allies and opponents of Syria in Lebanon. Anti-Syrian forces — mainly Christian and Sunni Muslim — dominate the government, but are facing a campaign by the mainly Shiite pro-Syrian camp to bring the government down.

The political crisis became potentially explosive this week with the assassination of an anti-Syrian politician, raising worries of more violence that could tear apart the country's fragile sectarian seams.

The anti-Syrian bloc brought out some 800,000 people for a mass rally at the funeral of the politician, Pierre Gemayel, on Thursday. Hezbollah has shown it can bring out similar numbers for its protests — and if it goes ahead with its threatened demonstrations, many fear it could start a spiral of street action.

Earlier Saturday, two key anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians met with Parliament Speaker Nabil Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and a Syria supporter, in an apparent attempt to find a compromise.

U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora offered to put off the contentious Cabinet vote for several days if six pro-Hezbollah ministers who quit the government earlier this month return. Hezbollah demands that the government be changed to give it and its allies more power, or else it will launch mass protests to topple Saniora.

'No agreement was reached'
But the reconciliation bid appeared to have failed, and the Cabinet meeting approved a U.N. draft for the tribunal.

"Unfortunately, no agreement was reached because each side stuck to its position," Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after the Cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet approval "now puts the opposition before its options to confront the government. The time and the place will be decided," Sheik Hassan Ezzeddine, a senior Hezbollah official, said after the vote when asked if Hezbollah would carry out its threatened protests.

"The government represents part of the Lebanese people, not all of them. Its decisions are void," he told Al-Arabiya television.

In the eyes of Hezbollah, the approval of the tribunal amounts to a rejection of its demands for a greater representation in the Cabinet, and the Shiite militant group and Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, denounced the Cabinet's approval of the tribunal.

Lahoud called the approval "null and void," according to a statement from his office. Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah called the decision "unconstitutional" because the constitution underlines that the government must represent all of Lebanon's main communities.

The Cabinet's tribunal approval expresses "the viewpoint of one group and deepen divisions in the country," said Fadlallah, who also confirmed Hezbollah would take to the streets. He did not give a date of when the protests would begin.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and Berri issued a statement Friday evening renewing the threat of protests. They said they would use "all democratic and legal means" — a reference to peaceful demonstrations — to reach their goal of gaining a greater presence in the Cabinet, one that would effectively give them veto power over government decisions.

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