Iranian Ali Akbar Salehi: Government without March 14 is Not One-Sided, Tribunal Worthless

Local Editor

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi reiterated that Tehran backed an inter-Lebanese agreement to solve the country's political crisis and stressed that Premier-designate Najib Mikati's government would not be one-sided.

"We support any agreement that the Lebanese achieve" among themselves, Salehi told Al Akhbar daily in an interview published Monday.

"Lebanon cannot be one-sided," he said adding "There is the resistance, Mr. Mikati, Mr. (Walid) Jumblatt and Michel Aoun. Do you consider those from a single side?"
"Only March 14 got out" of the government, Salehi told the newspaper, but hoped that the alliance would have been part of Mikati's government.

Asked what step Tehran would take if the Special Tribunal for Lebanon accused Iranian figures of involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination, the foreign minister said: "We don't give the international tribunal any consideration." He also said that accusations against Syria and then Hizbullah of involvement in the Feb. 2005 murder were all lies.