The US Focus on the Special Tribunal in the Aftermath of Ahmadinejad’s Visit

Ali Rizk

Ever since the visit of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a flurry of statements have been heard from US administration officials in support of the UN backed tribunal for the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri. The two day trip of the Iranian president was seen as a huge boost for the resistance bloc in the region of which Hizbullah is an integral part.

Furthermore the visit was preceded and followed by telephone discussions between the Iranian president and Saudi king Abdullah amid Saudi Syrian efforts to find a solution for the tension in Lebanon over the tribunal and the possible future indictment against members of Hizbullah. This indictment, which was predicted by "Israeli" officials and certain media outlets, led Hizbullah to describe the tribunal not just as politicized, but recently even as political.

The latest American expressions of vocal support for the tribunal were expressed by a familiar face to the Lebanese arena: former US ambassador to Lebanon and current US assistant secretary of state for near east affairs Jeffrey Feltman.

After holding talks in Saudi Arabia Feltman suddenly arrived in Beirut for an hour long visit which even took Lebanese officials by surprise. His meetings were interestingly enough with Lebanese president Michel Suleiman and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, in what could be seen as an attempt to affect what could be called the swing votes in cabinet. (Suleiman's 5 cabinet members are labeled as neutral while Jumblatt's shifting stances make it unknown in which direction he could go when it comes to a cabinet vote on decisive issues related to the tribunal).

Feltman described the tribunal as non political and this same message was conveyed to Lebanese president Michel Suleiman in a telephone call by US secretary of state Hilary Clinton. (Here we also notice the American administrations' focus on Suleiman particularly after he hosted his Iranian counterpart in a visit which was viewed as an upgrade of state to state relations between Lebanon and Iran).But what perhaps is most revealing are the latest remarks by Feltman to the pan Arab daily Al-Hayat.

In these remarks he said that one cannot choose between instability and justice and that it was Hizbullah who was trying to impose this choice on the Lebanese. If Feltman interprets Hizbullah's warnings against a possible indictment against its members as such, (and I can't see any other logical explanation as Hizbullah never pointed to instability in any other case) then such an indictment is considered justice in Feltman's dictionary. So in short the US assistant secretary of state see's that an indictment against Hizbullah is justice .

This is a stark reminder of how the US administration is resorting to the policies of George W Bush regarding how it views good and evil and reveals how far "Israel" and its allies are willing to go in the process of delegitimizing and tarnishing the image of Hizbullah. Note that this is taking place at the time where even according to Zionist media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, "Israel" is engaged in a soft war where the "Israeli" image itself has been subject to its fair share of tarnishing but ironically mostly due to Israeli policies more than organized campaigns by its rivals.