Report: Hizbullah Drone Renews Hariri Investigation Interest in Israeli Link to Crime

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's acknowledgment of the party's possession of a drone has renewed interest in the possible Israeli involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

Sources following the investigation noted to the daily Nasrallah's 2010 conference during which he presented images obtained from Israeli drones that followed the slain former premier's travel route in Lebanon.

He had stated during the August 9, 2010, conference that Hizbullah technicians succeeded in breaking the code of the drones and obtain the images they had photographed.

The investigation team in Hariri's murder had demanded that Hizbullah present this “evidence” to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, but the party had refused under the excuse that it does not recognize the international investigation, said the sources.

The party is still awaiting that the Lebanese judiciary look into Hariri's assassination, they added.

It had also presented a copy of Nasrallah's press conference to then General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza who in turn handed it over to then STL Prosecutor Judge Daniel Bellemare, they continued.

An Nahar reported that Israel had once acknowledged that Hizbullah could infiltrate its drones, but only those produced before 1997.

The Israeli authorities said that the images presented by Nasrallah in his August 2010 press conference were taken during different dates and possibly from the internet.

It is not unlikely that the international investigation would request information from various countries on Hizbullah's drone, the sources told the daily.

During the August press conference, Nasrallah showed several clips, each minutes long and undated, showing aerial views of the coastline off west Beirut on various days prior to the Hariri assassination.

Nasrallah, who has accused Israel of the February 14, 2005 bombing which killed Hariri and 22 other people, said the footage was intercepted from Israeli MK surveillance aircraft.

Hizbullah's chief said the images were not "conclusive evidence" but noted that his party had no offices, positions or presence in the areas under surveillance that could have been of interest to its Israeli foes.

The alleged Israeli cameras panned across the Hamra district, Hariri's residences in west Beirut and parliament, his last stop before the killing in a seafront bomb blast.