(MENAFN - The Peninsula) Hezbollah yesterday dared the powers that be to arrest its operatives who are charged with the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, and termed the indictment issued by the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) as an 'international drama' aimed at maligning the 'resistance movement of Lebanon'.
When everyone knows that the government of Lebanon is not capable of taking into custody the four Hezbollah operatives charged with Hariri's killing, why pressure is being mounted on it to make the arrests, wondered Hezbollah strongman, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
He rejected the indictment of the STL and said it comprises elements who are biased against Hezbollah. "The indictment is based on weak evidence and STL should have had neutral elements in order to be able to bare the truth (about Hariri's assassination) before the world," Nasrallah said.
Reacting to STL's indictment in the Hariri assassination case, Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Al Manar TV, a mouthpiece of the organisation, late last evening that he saw an Israeli ploy in the investigations and Tel Aviv's aim was to sow the seeds of rift and violence in Lebanon.
Nasrallah hinted that after Israel was defeated by Hezbollah (a reference to 2006 war in South Lebanon), it has been desperately looking to malign Hezbollah and create rift between Sunnis and Shias in Lebanon.
The Hezbollah leader said that STL consisted of elements hostile to Hezbollah, which he termed as a 'resistance movement' of Lebanon, and added that it (the STL) was acting at the behest of Tel Aviv.
The Hezbollah leader made presentations during his appearance on Al Manar TV showing at least one STL investigator accepting bribe and said its head, Antony Cassenger, was a friend of Israel.
This was announced at an event where Cassenger was supposed to be present but failed to, said Nasralalh. STL comprises elements who have previously worked with the CIA and FBI, he said.
Nasrallah said that when investigations in the Hariri assassination case were transferred to the STL, 79 computer sets that were used by Lebanese investigators earlier were shifted to the new venue of the investigations via Israel.
This raises doubts that the files were doctored and manipulated since Tel Aviv has access to ultra-modern technology. "Why the computers were not sent directly from Beirut," asked the Hezbollah strongman.
He made a fervent appeal to the Arab and Islamic world not to lend ears to such 'sinister games' that aim at targeting and maligning Hezbollah.
