Hizbollah: no funds for Lebanon tribunal

According to this FT report, Hizbollah is nervous that some of its leaders may soon be targeted by the U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri and is seeking to cut its funds: The tribunal is thought to have sufficient funds to operate until next March. The UN resolution that created the court ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

According to this FT report, Hizbollah is nervous that some of its leaders may soon be targeted by the U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri and is seeking to cut its funds:

According to this FT report, Hizbollah is nervous that some of its leaders may soon be targeted by the U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri and is seeking to cut its funds:

The tribunal is thought to have sufficient funds to operate until next March. The UN resolution that created the court has a provision for the secretary-general to seek funding from other sources if Lebanon fails to make its contribution. But the removal of Lebanese funding would undermine the tribunal’s credibility. Initial UN investigations into Hariri’s death had suggested the involvement of Syria, the neighbouring power that controlled Lebanon at the time and backs Hizbollah. More recently, however, Hizbollah’s own leaders have publicly said they expect charges against their members before the end of the year.

Senior U.S. officials have recently been trying to tamp down tensions in Lebanon while still voicing support for the tribunal’s work.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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