Nasrallah: STL will win back trust when perjurers tried

A UN team investigating the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri has questioned members of Hizbullah, the party’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said.

“In the past few weeks the prosecutor’s office in Beirut contacted a number of our brothers, some of them members of Hizbullah and others close to the party, and requested they come in for questioning,” Nasrallah said in an interview with Hizbullah’s Al-Manar television.

“They called in 12 of our brothers in recent weeks, and I believe they are now in the process of summoning six more,” he added.

The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 2007 to try suspects in the murder of Hariri, who was killed in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February 2005.

In its first annual report published in March, the tribunal said investigators were getting closer to identifying the suicide bomber who carried out the attack.

But Nasrallah said his party was not currently in the tribunal’s line of fire. “Representatives of the prosecutor’s office guaranteed us that all those being questioned were called in as witnesses, and not as suspects, at a semi-official meeting with representatives of Hizbullah,” he added.

“The prosecutor’s office until now has not accused any Hizbullah member. But we don’t know what could happen in the future,” he added.

Aoun, Hariri meet to resolve election issues

Prime Minister Saad Hariri met late on with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun where the two men reportedly discussed a “package deal” to resolve outstanding issues.

Local media said Hariri, accompanied by his adviser Nader Hariri, met Aoun at the latter’s residence in the Beirut suburb of Rabieh. The meeting was attended by Energy and Water Resources Minister Jebran Bassil.

Hariri had earlier Tuesday discussed municipal elections and state budget with Speaker Nabih Berri’s political aide MP Ali Hasan Khalil.

As-Safir newspaper said Hariri and Aoun discussed the possibility of reaching an agreement on a package deal to resolve pending issues as a follow-up to Hariri’s meetings with Hassan Khalil, political aide to Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday evening and a second one held Tuesday with Khalil, Berri’s assistant.