Hizbullah's secretary-general has called for a boycott of the tribunal, as the US takes a renewed interest in Lebanon, reports Lucy Fielder from Beirut Hizbullah has drawn the battle lines, with Secretary-General not only declaring his group would not cooperate with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, but also calling "on every citizen and every official" to boycott its work. It was a logical escalation in the group's campaign against the court in the run-up to its expected indictment of members of the Shia military and political group in the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri. Nasrallah's speech, an unusually curt quarter of an hour, followed a scuffle between international investigators and local women at a gynaecology clinic in the Hizbullah-dominated southern suburbs. He said the men's visit "insulted religious and moral values". Hizbullah denied that it had orchestrated the protest of about 30 women, who snatched a briefcase containing documents from the investigators. But their opponents in the parliamentary majority led by the prime minister, Al-Hariri's son Saad, said the group had been tipped off. Either way, analysts said the symbolism of the Western male team entering a women's clinic in the southern suburbs, although it denied asking to see patients' files, will have played in Hizbullah's favour. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon dubbed Nasrallah's boycott call an obstruction of justice in a week that saw a flurry of international statements concerning Hizbullah and its backers Syria and Iran and recalled the bad old days of polarisation that followed the Al-Hariri killing. Only a few isolated incidents have so far spilled on to the streets, and the rhetoric has not quite reached the poisonous level before the May 2008 Doha accord papered over the rift. But the country is nervously awaiting the indictment, with no clear sense of what will come next. Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN special envoy for Lebanon who is seen as hawkish by Hizbullah's alliance, said the country was in a "hyper-dangerous" state, blaming "heavily armed militias" in a clear reference to Hizbullah. And Washington's UN Ambassador Susan Rice weighed in by reiterating US accusations against Syria, which showed a "flagrant disregard" for Lebanese sovereignty by providing weapons to Hizbullah. But despite the renewed interest, the extent to which Washington intends to get involved this time is unclear. When the split between the anti-Syrian 14 March and Syrian-backed 8 March widened into a gulf after the July 2006 war, Washington very frequently issued statements backing their allies, drawing accusations of meddling. But after the Western-backed government clamped down on Hizbullah's communication networks in May 2008 and prompted decisive retaliation from the group, whose gunmen took over the streets of western Beirut and battled opponents in the Chouf and north, it became clear US backing was to the extent of taking on the powerful guerrillas. The pro-Western parliamentary majority "doesn't have a lot of choices" other than to take support from whence it comes, said Rosana Bou Monsef, columnist for the pro-majority An-Nahar newspaper. "They don't want to rely on the States after what happened, but with the situation coming to a head in Lebanon they hope they can do something to prevent another May 2008," she said. The sudden rush of US interest is a direct reaction to the October visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, she said. "It's vital for them that Lebanon doesn't become 'Iranian'," she said. That visit flaunted the Iran-Hizbullah relationship, but diplomacy between the Lebanese state and Iran was also highlighted, and the visit was viewed in Lebanon, albeit grudgingly by its critics, as a success for Iran. A miffed US arranged several visits by US Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, a former ambassador to Lebanon, to try to encourage Washington's allies to stand firm on The Hague court in the face of Iran's diplomatic coup. Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri responded to Nasrallah's call this week by insisting he would stand by the court. At the same time, he repeated that he no longer blamed Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad for his father Rafik's assassination, after years of accusing Lebanon's neighbour. "I do not think that President Al-Assad had anything to do with that," he told The Times of London in an interview this week, published as he visited the United Kingdom. Now all eyes in Lebanon are on whether he will come out against the indictment of Hizbullah. A debate over the issue of the "false witnesses" is seen as a potential spark for any coming conflict within the national unity government. The former opposition wants Lebanon's highest judiciary authority, the Judicial Council, to investigate witnesses who came forward after Al-Hariri's killing with testimony they later retracted. Their opponents believe they should wait until an indictment is issued, and that it can be investigated if necessary at a lower level. A cabinet discussion was delayed again this week, this time by Al-Hariri extending one of his now famous trips abroad. The prime minister is coming under growing domestic criticism for being away more than at home, though few would blame him for a lack of relish in confronting the choices he has to make. Al-Hariri has long thrown his weight behind the tribunal into his father's killing; now he is being asked to reject it and risk the scorn of his allies, domestic and international. "Whatever the reasons, the government wants to delay this discussion in the hope that a solution can be found before it goes to a vote," Bou Monsef said. "But the country is in a very, very dangerous stage. Because there is no solution." Regular meetings between Syrian and Saudi leaders, who back the rival factions in Lebanon and were formerly at loggerheads, seem to be the best chance of keeping a lid on tensions. Hizbullah ally and Christian Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun warned against endless delays in the vote. Without one, there could be no dialogue, he said, a reference to the seemingly interminable discussions that have been gathering Lebanese political and sectarian leaders around the table to defer key issues since early 2006. President Michel Suleiman was due to convene a session late this week. Meanwhile, speculation is growing of a Hizbullah take-over, like that of 2008, in the event of an indictment fingering any of its members. Fida Itani wrote in the pro- minority Al-Akhbar daily, which has good sources in the group, that Hizbullah had carried out a simulation of "zero-hour". "As this indictment is issued [or even some hours prior, according to some sides], a heavy security and political deployment is to be implemented without fire or bloodshed and without targeting citizens of residential areas," he wrote. It would involve controlling major cities, ports and borders, as well as high points in the mountainous regions of Keserwan and the north. Those wanted in connection with the court indictment or on grounds of inciting strife would be arrested.
