Lebanon PM resignation accepted

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159948.html


Lebanon's president has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri after the collapse of his government over tensions provoked by a US-backed tribunal investigating his father's assassination case.

"Since one third of the cabinet members quit, the government is now considered resigned," President Michel Sleiman said in a statement released on Thursday.

"For this reason, I request the caretaker government to carry out its duties until a new one is formed," the president added.

Lebanon's national unity government collapsed on Wednesday after eleven ministers, 10 from the Hezbollah-led March 8 Alliance and one close to Sleiman, resigned as he was on an official visit in Washington.

Sleiman has asked Hariri to continue managing the country's day-to-day affairs in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed.

The opposition bloc have for months been pressing Hariri to disavow the US-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (SLT), probing the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

The western-backed majority, however, refused to make a compromise at the expense of the US-sponsored STL.

Rafiq Hariri and 20 other people were assassinated on February 14, 2005, when explosives equal to around 1,000 kilogram of TNT were blown up in downtown Beirut.

The Washington-sponsored STL was set up some two years later to look into the deadly incident.

Reports say that the court would likely issue an indictment against some Hezbollah members.

Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has vehemently rebuffed the allegations. He has described the plot as part of dangerous projects that are targeting the resistance movement.

The Lebanese As-Safir daily in November wrote that the United States is exerting "intensive" pressure on Hariri tribunal under the motto: "No discussions before an indictment is issued."