AFP, United Nations, Nov 5, 2010  – UN Security Council powers threw their weight behind the troubled international investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri at special talks Friday.
French ambassador Gerard Araud said the meeting was to show support following an attack on investigators in Beirut and to demand that the inquiry go ahead in ’a serene, independent and effective way.’
The UN Special Tribunal on Lebanon was set up in 2007 to investigate the 2005 assassination of Hariri. Tensions have mounted as unconfirmed reports say that charges are to be made against members of the Hezbollah militia.
The Shiite militia, backed by Iran and Syria, has called for a boycott of the UN investigation.
Friday’s Security Council meeting was ’the expression of our common concern after the attacks on the investigator’s team,’ Araud told reporters afterwards.
’There was a general expression of support to the tribunal. Now we are going to see what happens on the ground in the coming weeks, which is important,’ he added.
’We have all expressed our wish that the tribunal will be able to continue its action in a serene, independent and effective way,’ said Araud.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was to visit Lebanon on Friday for talks with President Michel Sleimane and Prime Minister Saad Hariri on the new tensions.
The United States last week accused Hezbollah of ’escalating sectarian tensions.’
Lebanon has started an investigation into the October 27 attack by a group of women on two UN investigators and their translator at a clinic in a Shiite suburbs of Beirut, its UN ambassador Nawaf Salam said.
Prime Minister Hariri, son of the slain ex-leader, has reaffirmed his commitment to the UN investigation.