BEIRUT – A Lebanese official said Hizbollah ministers and their allies had resigned from the Cabinet, bringing the government to the brink of collapse. Energy Minister Jibran Bassil told a news conference on Wednesday that ten ministers pulled out. They need just one more minister to resign in order to force the government to fall and an 11th minister could resign later in the day. The ministers are stepping down from the 30-member Cabinet over tensions stemming from a UN-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of a former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. Eleven ministerial resignations would be enough to bring down the government of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. There was no immediate news on whether another minister, Adnan Sayyed Hussein, who Hizbollah supporters also expect to resign, was stepping down. A senior official in al-Hariri's Future Movement, Mustafa Alloush, said al-Hariri would not succumb to "pressure and ultimatums." "The prime minister is not opposed to a meeting in principle, but he has commitments outside Lebanon now," Alloush told The Associated Press. Hizbollah has denounced the tribunal as an "Israeli project" and urged al-Hariri to reject any findings by the court, which has not yet announced any indictments. But the prime minister has refused to break co-operation with the tribunal. UN Special Co-ordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams yesterday expressed his concerns over the possibility of a prolonged political crisis in Lebanon. Williams made the remarks yesterday after meeting with Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, saying that strengthening stability remained "something that everybody has to work for". "Lebanon is renowned for its pluralism in every respect and I believe that very pluralism demands of its politicians that they seek solutions to the problems no matter how deep those problems are," Williams said, according to a news release from his office. Williams also praised Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz for efforts to strengthen stability in Lebanon.
