BEIRUT: The Beirut government is in paralysis, business deals are on hold and rumors abound as Lebanon anxiously awaits indictments by a UN tribunal probing former premier Rafiq Hariri's murder. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) said on December 9 that the confidential contents of the indictments for the 2005 killing of Hariri and 22 others in a Beirut blast would be filed for confirmation “very, very soon.” The STL is reportedly set to indict high-ranking operatives of Shiite group Hezbollah, Lebanon's most powerful military force, which accuses the court of serving Israel and of having based its findings on false testimony. Hezbollah has said it expects to be falsely accused of involvement and warned against any attempt to arrest its members, raising fears of instability in the small, multi-religious Mediterranean country. Hassan Nasrallah, who heads the militant movement, has urged Lebanon's deeply divided unity government to step aside and allow him to deal with the STL which he brands a US-Israeli plot. There is “total paralysis of state institutions, including the government, which is incapable of taking any decision,” said Sami Salhab, a law professor at the Lebanese University. The awaited indictments have split the unity government, with Hezbollah and its supporters pitted against a camp led by Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri. – Agence France
