Miqati: STL to Decide if What We Did is Right
Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Wednesday the relevant authorities in Lebanon did their best in their attempt to arrest the four suspects named in the indictment issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri.
“The relevant authorities have been looking for the various people on a daily basis,” Miqati told Newsweek U.S. weekly news magazine.
He expressed belief that “it’s now up to the court to decide if what we did is right and what we have to do next.”
Asked about Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s statement that no one from his party would be arrested not in 300 years, Miqati said: “We have complete freedom of speech… He has the right to say whatever he wants.”
The tribunal first submitted a confidential indictment and warrants for the four to Lebanon in late June.
Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen last month ordered confidentiality be partially dropped around the names and charges against Salim Ayyash, 47, Mustafa Badreddine, 50, Hussein Oneissi, 37 and Assad Sabra, 34.
Miqati slammed reports saying that the cabinet is taking its decisions based on Hizbullah’s orders.
“We listen to everybody… We are taking our decisions independently,” he told his interviewer.
On fears about a Hizbullah attempt to launch a military takeover of Lebanon if the Syrian regime falls, the PM said: “This is a very hypothetical issue.”
About fears of turning the turmoil in Syria into Lebanon, the PM didn’t express worries about the unrest spilling over into the country since it’s an “internal Syrian issue.”
“I’m trying to create a kind of wall between what’s happening in Syria and any implication here on the Lebanese side,” Miqati said.
He told the magazine he’s still in touch with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“Yes, we were friends. Unfortunately, now he’s so busy. (I haven’t had) the chance to see him or even talk to him,” the PM said.
Regarding the Syrian opposition groups that criticized his support to Assad, the magazine quoted him as saying: “That’s politics.”
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