AFP, Doha, January 12, 2011 – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday accused Hezbollah and its allies of trying to wreck a UN probe into the murder of Lebanon’s ex-premier Rafiq Hariri but said the move will fail.
Lebanon’s government collapsed on Wednesday after the powerful Shiite party and its allies resigned from the cabinet over the UN-backed tribunal into Hariri’s murder in 2005.
’We view what happened today as a transparent effort by those forces inside Lebanon as well as interests outside Lebanon to subvert justice and undermine Lebanon’s stability and progress,’ Clinton told a news conference in Doha.
’We believe that the work of the special tribunal must go forward, so justice can be served and impunity ended,’ she said, flanked by Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani.
’We believe that the leaders of Lebanon have an ongoing responsibility to serve the interests of their own people, not outside forces,’ she said, apparently referring to Hezbollah allies Iran and Syria.
’Trying to bring the government down as a way to undermine the special tribunal is an abdication of responsibility but it also will not work,’ Clinton said after talks with Gulf Arabs in Qatar.
The chief US diplomat said the UN tribunal was supported by many governments, including that of the United States. ’Its work will continue,’ she said.
She said she and Sheikh Hamad discussed the importance of working with the Lebanese government, the Lebanese people and other partners who ’share our interests in pursuing both stability and justice in Lebanon.’
Sheikh Hamad said he continued to support Syrian-Saudi efforts at mediation.
The government collapsed after Michel Aoun, a key Christian ally of Hezbollah, said on Tuesday that Syrian-Saudi efforts had failed to contain the political crisis over the UN probe.
In 2008 Qatar helped to mediate an end to an 18-month standoff between rival factions that ended political paralysis in Lebanon and paved the way for the election of President Michel Sleiman.
But Sheikh Hamad said on Wednesday there ’will be no Doha II.’