Watan newspaper, which is close to the Damascus government, Wednesday expressed its support for Lebanon's prime minister-designate Najib Mikati and said he would bring change to the region. The newspaper added that Lebanon had finally “uncovered the plot” hatched by the West to exploit the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) investigating the murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri. “Najib Mikati is the man appointed to form a new government in Lebanon which will herald changes in political life in Lebanon and around the region. “More importantly, Lebanon has uncovered the grand plot and dangerous deceptions hatched by Western parties and their proxies within the country,” the paper added, alluding to the United States and the forces of Hariri's March 14 movement in Lebanon. The daily denounced “the party who relied on crime (perpetrated against former prime minister Rafiq Hariri) ... and the United States who exploit the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). “The March 14 forces have not accepted political failure, they have resorted to (violence), for which they denounced” Hezbollah when it was in opposition, said Al-Watan. Backed by the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, Mikati was asked on Tuesday by Lebanese President Michel Sleiman to form a government. Mikati's appointment was denounced by outgoing premier and former ally turned rival Saad Hariri, whose thousands of supporters have demonstrated, sometimes violently, throughout the country. Hezbollah and its allies brought down Hariri's administration by withdrawing their ministers from his cabinet in a pre-emptive response to the STL investigation, which is widely expected to indict Hezbollah members for Rafiq Hariri's 2005 assassination.
