Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Nasrallah incriminates Israel but does not deliver proof

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbollah, during his press conference of Monday night, made quite an impression, but failed to deliver evidence that Israel was implicated in the killing of Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005. He himself admitted that it was not convincing proof.
People had been looking forward to Nasrallah's presentation., as he had promised to deliver indications for Israels guilt. And quite a press conference it was with visual effects, music videotapes. Nasrallah spoke at length about the extensive network of Israeli spies in Lebanon that recently has been uncovered and gave examples of how these spies not only have Israel complete access to Lebabon's telecomunications wetworks and their data, but were also implicated in several attacks on and (failed) attempts on the lives of Lebanes leaders, like for instance Nabih Berri, the speaker of parliament.
The most interesting of Nasrallah's revelations was that Hizbollah hs found a way to intercept and decode the images of Isareli (unmanned) spy planes. In his press conference Nasrallah showed several of these pictures, one of which had to do with the murder of Hariri. It was footage of Hariri's home in Saida (Sidon), and some of the itinery his motorcadewith hus armoured limousine usually took. Nasrallah said that at least part of the footage showed places wewre Hizbollah has no presence at all, which was an indication that the Israeli's were taking these pictures for quite different purposes. He pointed, for instance at the way the Israeli's seemd to be particlarly intrested in places were Hariri's motorcade had to slow down because it had to take turns etc. At these spots the planes took pictures from different angles.
Again, it was no proof that Isarel had to do with the murder, but it seems quite an acchievement that Hizbollah is able to break in into these communications of the Israelis. That Nasrallahs findings will influence tthe Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) about the murder of Hariri (and 22 others) is highly unlikely. The STL will deliver its conclusions shortly. It is expected, as Hasrallah had made known earlier, that members of Hizbollah will be implicated. Nasrallah has said that Hizbollah will not accept these conclusions. He has called the STL an instrument of Israel.

Update 11/8 The Internationale Tribunal has asked Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to share the information he has on the murder of Hariri with the tribunal. reports the Daily Star.   

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